Then O'Brien's life changed dramatically.Ī crash during training at the Calgary velodrome in July 2017 left her with life-threatening injuries, including a serious head injury, a punctured lung, broken clavicle and cracked ribs. In Rio, though, she finished well off the podium, 13th in the keirin, 14th in the sprint and eighth in the team sprint. O'Brien, 33, knows better than most - she's in the unique position of having competed at both the 2016 Rio Olympics and the Tokyo Paralympics this summer.Ī former bobsled athlete who competed for Canada in the 2013 world championships before suffering a torn hamstring, the Calgary native shone in the velodrome at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, winning gold in the team sprint and silver in the women's individual event. 'Being here with other Para athletes has shown me how friggin' fast they are at what they do.” Because having a knee injury is not different than being paraplegic and yet, somehow, we still put them into different categories. 'There doesn’t need to be as much of this division between able-bodied and Para. And all humans are the same,' she told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Tokyo on Tuesday. The track cyclist says the Games have also showed her just how little separates elite Para athletes from their able-bodied counterparts. Kate O'Brien is taking more than a silver medal away from the Tokyo Paralympics.

Sour patch kids crash team racing