ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Ten years after being paralyzed from the chest down, Brandon Lyons now has a ticket to compete in the Paralympics in Paris. At the age of 34, he has secured his spot on Team USA where he will be handcycling with his eyes set on gold.
Inside his St. Johns County home, Lyons prepares for the race of his life.
“It takes a lot of dedication, you know, hard work. Paralympians are the same as Olympians, they're just dealing with a disability or any type of challenge that they're working through,” Lyons said.
First Coast News has followed Lyons' journey since he became the first handcyclist to live full-time at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado. Now three years after an infection took a toll on his chance at making it to Tokyo, Lyons has his ticket to compete in Paris.
“It’s just crazy to just look back ten years ago, being in a hospital, broken back, not really knowing, not even thinking about sports, but knowing what my life had in store for me to say 10 years now later, I'm going to Paris as a Paralympian with Team USA,” Lyons said.
He credits his family, friends and coworkers with helping him make it this far.
“They were always behind me from day one, so it was as much how could I do it for them as much as for myself,” Lyons said.
His mom, Kelly Bennie, was so confident he would make it to Paris, that she decorated his whole house in patriotic colors before he even qualified.
“We just knew in our hearts he was going to pull this off. We just had a feeling it was his year, this is his Olympics,” Bennie said. “He's been through so much. And to overcome everything he's overcome, and all the hard work, to watch this kid work so hard. I mean, he trains almost every day. And he travels and he races, and he's put his whole heart into it. This has been his major dream, and to see him finally accomplish and reach his dream, it’s wonderful.”
Lyons' life is an example of what can happen when you don't give up.
“Ten years ago, when I was in hospital, I thought I was going to lose my job. I thought I was going to be, you know, fully dependent on family to get around and thought my life was potentially over. And it was always about just taking risks and not letting a situation dictate what my future was going to be. It was me taking control of what I wanted to achieve, and to kind of just taking that mentality to move forward,” Lyons said.
Lyons is now training at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado before he heads to Europe. He will be competing in two individual events and possibly a team relay event from Sept. 4, through 7, 2024.