Nathan Clement pushed past the pain to claim his first podium finish at a Paralympic Games.
On Wednesday, in the Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois, the West Vancouver athlete won silver in the men’s T1-2 individual time trial.
With a time of 22 minutes 53.36 seconds, Clement rode over the finish line one minute 17.58 seconds behind gold medallist Jianxin Chen of China.
Chen was able to defend his Paralympic title around the 14.6-kilometre track, after Clement beat him to win the event at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships last August.
Clement, 29, said he rode beyond his comfort zone on Wednesday. The veteran para athlete had a stroke at age two, causing him to lose mobility on the left side of his body.
“I had a lot of high spasticity in my arm," he told the Canadian Paralympic Committee after the race. "I was really battling and focused on controlling my left side. When it acts up it can become very difficult.”
In the T category events, most of the riders have cerebral palsy like Clement and race on three-wheel bikes, which compensate for issues with balancing.
This is Clement’s second Paralympics, after competing in para swimming in Rio in 2016. He placed seventh there in the 50-metre butterfly.
Clement retired from swimming before taking up paracycling in 2020. His rise in the sport has been meteoric since then, most recently riding to gold in the time trial at the Parapan Games in Santiago, Chile last November. He also won bronze in the longer T1-2 road race event there.
His Paralympic silver is one the moments that sums up his journey and sporting career, Clement said.
“It’s never going to be pretty. It’s going to be ugly and you’re really going to have to dig deep to get to where you want to be,” he said.
You can catch Clement at the T1-2 Paralympic road race event on Saturday at 3:45 a.m. PT.
