Kieran Modra’s former coach, team manager call him a superstar cyclist, brilliant Paralympian but an even better bloke
Kieran Modra was a world champion Paralympic cyclist killed doing what he loved. Colleagues say he wasn’t just a great sportsman, he was also a caring mentor to others in need.
Cycling
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cycling. Followed categories will be added to My News.
To many, Kieran Modra was the Paralympic great who overcame being born visually impaired to win five gold and five bronze medals at the Games.
But, according to friends within the sporting community, Modra considered himself an advocate for the Paralympic movement, more so than one of SA’s top athletes.
“When he retired he said ‘I hope people know there was more to me than being able to ride a bike fast’,” Cycling Australia’s welfare manager Murray “Muz” Lydeamore told The Advertiser.
“The sport gave Kieran an identity out there in the community… but for Kieran it was much wider than that – he had a genuine interest in other people.
“That was not just in Australia, but overseas where he would spend time speaking to athletes of other countries.
“He was recognised as a world champion athlete, but that was not how Kieran wanted to be known.
“He was incredibly caring about other persons with a disability and was seeking to give them the opportunity to pursue whatever their dreams or goals were, just like he did.”
Modra, an eight-time Paralympian who won five gold and three bronze medals in tandem cycling and two in swimming, died on Wednesday.
He was hit by a Kia sedan on the Sturt Highway at Kingsford, north of Gawler, while cycling to Clare from his home at Hallett Cove.
The 47-year-old with low vision, who regularly rode by himself, including to and from trainings, died at the scene.
Lydeamore said Modra’s legacy would be inspiring others.
Modra often spoke about his journey – from competing at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics in athletics, to winning two bronze medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games as a swimmer then going to six more as a tandem cyclist – to schools and community groups.
In 2014, he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia medal for significant service to sport, and to low-vision or blind people.
“He wanted to encourage others that may be facing challenges in their life,” Lydeamore said.
Modra was a family man to wife Kerry and their three daughters Makala, Holly and Janae, an incredible athlete and strong-willed rider, but he could also be unconventional.
Not only would he sometimes defy the team’s program and train how he wanted, his hobby was tatting – a type of lace handcrafting taught to him by his grandmother.
Stream over 50 sports Live & On-Demand with KAYO SPORTS on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Just $25/month, no lock-in contract. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming instantly >
Lydeamore said Modra would create doilies and bookmarks on team buses and at race meets.
“Because of his vision impairment, people believed he was totally blind but his condition was such that he could focus on very, very small objects,” he said.
“If we were travelling somewhere, out would come his needle and his thread and he would focus his eyes very closely on this, and people around were absolutely fascinated.
“Here was this person who had difficult seeing the wider range of things around him, but he had this passion for tatting and forever on a trip, it occupied him.”
Former Australian Paralympic cycling coach Kevin McIntosh said Modra had his quirks and was someone who loved racing his bike so much, he often trained when advised otherwise.
“If he wanted to do something you actually had to sit at he gate and make sure he stayed in the village on opening ceremony night,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh called Modra a very special person and “the godfather” of Paralympic cycling because of the way he looked after younger athletes and got people into the sport.
“He’d do his own coaching sessions helping vision-impaired athletes and a lot of time in the service of others,” he said.
“He was a very generous person with his time, particularly for a superstar.”
Paralympics Australia chief executive Lynne Anderson described Modra as a giant of the Paralympic movement.
“In retirement from elite competition, Kieran was always giving back, working as a mentor to the next generation of talent,” Anderson said.
SA Sports Institute director Wes Battams said Modra was a “humble champion of miraculous feats”.
“He is probably one of the most enduring and truly successful athletes we’ve had come through the institute,” said Battams of Modra, who spent more than 20 years in SASI programs.
“The true hallmark of him as a champion is all that he achieved, but with so many different partners on the bike in so many different events, both with male and female athletes and sprinters and endurance riders.
“To think that he took so many people to Paralympic medals and world championship medals, it’s just quite astounding.
“All along the way, he was extremely hardworking, but a fun-loving athlete of amazing character.
“His loss is an extreme tragedy.”
Modra broke two vertebrae in his neck and one in his spine when he collided with a stationary car while cycling to work in December 2011.
Battams said his remarkable recovery to claim glory at the following year’s Olympics in London demonstrated his fierce determination to succeed.
“To get back on a bike within a month and then go on to win a gold medal in London was just incredible,” Battams said.
“He was a champion athlete and a champion person.
“Our extreme sympathies go to his family.”
Battams said SASI would liaise with Cycling Australia and Paralympics Australia in the coming days regarding a possible tribute in Modra’s honour.