Life in the fast lane Para triathlete Leanne Taylor won bronze in Paris. She has more ambitious goals in mind, including motherhood By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 3:23 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024

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This article was published 11/12/2024 (269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In September, a mere six years after a mountain biking accident made her a paraplegic, Leanne Taylor won a bronze medal in the triathlon at the Paralympics in Paris.

It was astonishing achievement but if you listen to her long-term plan, Taylor’s next four years could be even more ambitious.

The 32-year-old from Oak Bluff and her husband, Scott Dyck, plan to start a family while Taylor also continues to work as a compliance officer for a Winnipeg pharmaceutical company and train for the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.

Oh, and after completing and finishing third in the women’s division of the Philadelphia Marathon last month — her first marathon — she’s considering a sideline in that sport, too.

Taylor has also been on the speaking circuit, averaging two public appearances per week while promoting her sport.

“I’ve been talking about my Games experience and ultimately — with the hope of introducing people who don’t have a lot of exposure to the para community — what it’s like to be disabled and sort of helping people to realize that you’re more similar than you are different,” says Taylor.

“I think especially at a young age, people are taught not to be impolite to disabled people, and that’s good, but it also creates this barrier. It’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to say, so I’ll just say nothing.’ ”

So far, the public response has been enthusiastic. On a recent trip back to her family home in Wasaga Beach, Ont., Taylor spoke at her high school and elementary school.

She’s met Premier Wab Kinew, has joined Winnipeg’s taekwondo Olympic bronze medallist, Skylar Park, on stage and shares her Oak Bluff hometown with triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk, a three-time Olympian.

“I was comfortable speaking, but I feel like telling your own story is sort of the basis of most of my talks,” she says. “It is like a thank you to the people, and that’s easy to do. Maybe if I had to talk about something else it would be more difficult, but sort of telling your own story with a purpose that you really want, I think is easy.”

With these responsibilities, Taylor’s schedule is full. She has morning and evening training sessions, sandwiching her work duties at Medicure. She is able to work from home most days and with an understanding employer, has reduced her job to four hours per day.

“She has a really good story to tell and now we’re back in that same boat where she has three jobs,” says Scott Dyck, who was a scientist at Medicure prior to his wife’s accident but has moved into the company’s marketing department. “So it is hard because it’s like you want to keep that job, because you don’t know you’re not going to be an athlete for your whole life, and you need those positive experiences to keep your mental health good.”

While Taylor and Mislawchuk have access to the same dietitian and sports psychology resources offered to carded athletes by Triathlon Canada, the financial support doesn’t match.

“We want to have a family soon and so we’re looking at how do we do the sport but also support the future that we want to have?”–Leanne Taylor

“We still don’t see as much in terms of sponsorship or brand deals,” says Taylor. “I’m sponsored by a medical supply company and an insurance provider — and I’m so appreciative of that and that’s wonderful — but I don’t think para athletes are getting approached as much by major brands of clothing or sporting goods.”

Taylor is happy to be a face and voice promoting a positive shift in perception.

“I think it is changing and I think it’s really nice as you start to see more ambassadors from the disabled community,” adds Taylor. “But part of the challenge, too, is a triathlete would be sponsored by a bike manufacturer but my bike is incredibly expensive and very niche, and is only ridden by a couple of hundred people in the world, whereas when you’re looking at the bike that Tyler uses, people will see him riding it and go out and buy it.

“That’s not really gonna happen with the bike that I’m riding.”

Taylor is an inspiration to many but she continues to be inspired by others, such as former Canadian rower Silken Laumann, a former Olympian who became aware of her story in 2019 and purchased Taylor’s first hand cycle, which is used for the bike segment in the para triathlon.

“She’s incredible and we stay connected,” says Taylor. “She was kind of the reason that I felt comfortable to start speaking honestly, because when we spoke about my story, she was like, ‘If it makes a difference in the life of one person, you need to tell it.’ ”

Triathlon Canada’s Carolyn Murray, who has coached Taylor since 2019, says experience helped to unlock her star pupil’s potential.

“The big shift started to happen probably two years ago, where she became more confident in what she could do in a race setting,” says Murray. “The training had showed a certain level and then the race piece — there’s a lot happening in a race. If you’re in a hand cycle, you have quite a different view is probably the best way to describe it, then someone on a regular bike.

“You’re quite low down, and so it’s same thing with swimming, she’s not as high in the water. Her ability to see what’s happening was quite different. And it took some time, as it was with any athlete in her category, to have a good lens on what was happening around the course.”

Dyck marvels at Taylor’s perserverance in the face of her disability.

“I don’t know how she does it,” says Dyck, his wife’s frequent training partner. “She’s incredibly tough. Incredibly mentally tough…

“She’s so good at analyzing situations. She’ll experience the sadness of whatever’s happening, but then she’s really good at just being, ‘OK, I’ve been sad. What do I do now?’ So it’s almost like segmenting your thoughts a bit and I don’t know who taught her that but it definitely wasn’t me.”

Taylor’s busy life promises to get busier.

“We want to have a family soon and so we’re looking at how do we do the sport but also support the future that we want to have?” she says Taylor. “Whereas I think a lot of athletes have to or are able to sort of pause their lives.”

The road to L.A. will come under the supervision of a new coach, Lisa Mensink. In the new year, Murray will be assuming a position as a summer-sport high performance advisor with Canada’s Own the Podium program.

“There’s no doubt that she’s capable of repeating on the podium,” says Murray. “To me, it’s just the matter of where on the podium. Each year she’s closing that gap to the top. So I do think she’ll be one of the athletes to beat. As an athlete, there are no guarantees and so I know she’s going to be continuing to challenge herself and continuing to learn and have fun.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca