Today, we catch up with Great Britain’s Fin Graham (23), who has stormed 2022 so far, winning all the UCI World Cup events he’s entered. “But my top three C1-C3 performances are definitely my three races from the Tokyo Paralympic Games,” he tells us. “Setting the world record in the 3km pursuit and then going on to win silver in the event was amazing. Then despite finishing fourth in the individual time trial, I was less than three seconds off a medal; I was happy with how I rode as TT isn’t my preferred event. Another second in the road race was such a nice way to finish off the amazing experience. It all just fell into place and I was in the best form of my life and exceeded my own expectations as to how I would get on during the three weeks!”
Can you tell us about your disability, please?
Fin Graham (FG): I was born with severe bilateral talipes (club feet), which is a below-knee abnormality. At 13 weeks I had an operation to try and correct it but only managed a little bit in the left foot to the point where I don’t need any orthotics (splint).
I also have very limited amounts of calf muscle in both legs. The physios always suspected there might be something else going on as well on top of my talipes and when I started my para-cycling journey I had further assessments by neurologists, who discovered I have spinal muscular atrophy with lower-limb involvement.
What difficulties has this presented you with?
FG: I have had a very fortunate upbringing due to the fact my parents never let me use this as an excuse! They very much encouraged me to get involved with everything from a young age so I haven’t really experienced any difficulties due to the condition. There were the odd few times when I was younger that people would make fun of it slightly, but it never got to me and I was always better than those people in PE! As I got bigger I was putting more stress on the splints, which resulted in them breaking more often, meaning I had to get new ones regularly, which was a bit of a pain!
Can you tell us about your upbringing?
FG: Originally I grew up in the Borders of Scotland in a little village near to the mountain bike (MTB) trails at Glentress where I spent a lot of time with my family and friends. When I was eight years old we moved to Strathpeffer in the Highlands. Strathpeffer is famous in the MTB world for the Strathpuffer, which is a 24-hour race in the middle of winter. I’ve raced it a few times and when I was 16 I raced it solo, riding the 24 hours all on my own!
When did you start para-cycling?
FG: I started paracycling due to the fact I had watched the Paralympics at Rio 2016 on TV and really wanted to be a part of it, though I had no idea as to whether I would be classifiable or not. I sent an email to British Cycling asking what the process to go through would be, in which they invited me down to Derby [England] for a Talent ID day (October 2016). Here, I undertook six-second, three-minute and 12-minute power tests. Thankfully, they liked what they saw and invited me back for re-testing shortly after. From that I got onto the British Cycling Foundation squad.
Tell us about your training.
FG: My training depends as to what phase I’m in, but currently for the road I’m training six days per week with a focus on longer rides to build volume. I’ll also do some shorter, more intense sessions to raise my peak power.
What are your 2022 season aims?
FG: To become UCI World Champion on both the road and in the velodrome. I’m happy with how my season has started, winning four out of four UCI World Cup races, so I’m looking forward to the second half of the season.
What are your long-term aims?
FG: My long-term aim is to become Paralympic Champion.
Anything else you would like to tell our readers about your paracycling journey so far?
FG: The whole experience has been amazing, from the two years I spent on the Foundation squad to becoming full-time at the end of 2018. Being part of such an amazing squad has been amazing. There’s so much you can learn from others and we’re constantly pushing each other to improve.
Brief explanation of para-cycling sport classes
C – Cyclist: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
T – Tricycle: three-wheeled bike
B – Visually impaired: tandem bicycle ridden with sighted pilot
H – Handbike
Each group is divided into different sport classes (1 to 5), with the lower the number indicating greater impairment.