Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Emily Petricola, Paige Greco grab Aussie cycling gold at the velodrome

Emily Petricola and Paige Greco made it look like they were going on a weekend excursion, but behind the scenes, staff were working overtime to get them ready for the ride of their lives.

(L-R) Australia’s latest Gold Medalists Emily Petricola and Paige Greco. Day 01of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. Paralympics Australia / Day1 Tokyo Japan : Wednesday 25th Aug 2021 © Sport the library / Greg Smith / PA

They just made it all look so easy as they scooped up Australia’s first two gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics, but nothing could have been further from the truth for our new track cycling stars, Emily Petricola and Paige Greco.

Petricola was so dominant that she lapped her opponent in the gold medal race with three laps still to go to win the C4 3,000m individual pursuit, just 15 minutes after her team mate, Greco, obliterated her own world record to win the C3 classification.

They were both so good that it almost looked like they were going on a weekend excursion, but behind the scenes, staff were working overtime to get them ready for the ride of their lives.

Emily Petricola and Paige Greco celebrate their golden days.

Petricola, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 13 years ago, almost missed the final when her body started playing up after the heats, revealing that was only the intervention of team physio Keren Faulkner that got her to the start line.

“Physically, I had some issues between the races that was going on,” Petricola said.

“Some of the muscles in my body weren‘t very co-operative, so Keren had to step in and sort of help me settle that down so that I could pull up OK for the final and do the recovery as it was.”

“I also had some mental challenges, so there was a fair bit going on in the background today.

“I‘ve had tremors and stuff since we landed here pretty significantly. So in all seriousness, I wouldn’t have made it to the start line today, and definitely wouldn’t have been able to perform, if it wasn’t for the support staff.”

Making her Paralympics debut at age 41, Petricola was a late comer to cycling, taking the sport up just five years to try and get fit again after becoming severely depressed following her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

Emily Petricola powers to victory in Tokyo.

She has little control of her body but cycling is one of the few sports that she has not only been able to particpate in – but also excel, as she demonstrated at the Izu Velodrome, breaking her own world record in the heats then lapping her American opponent Shawn Morelli to win the gold.

“MS is a really cruel disease. It steals a lot of your identity and a part of that for me was being healthy and fit and really active and I wasn‘t able to do that for a good seven years,” she said.

“It‘s unbelievable to me that despite all of the horror that sometimes my body produces, I can still do this one thing pretty well.”

Greco, who has cerebral palsy, was given an unexpected wake up call that tested her mental strength when China’s Xiaomei Wang broke the Australian’s world record in the morning heats, but she rose to the challenge.

The 24-year-old South Australian immediately regained the world record by breaking Wang’s new mark in the heats, then lowered it again in the gold medal race at night to add the Paralympic title to her four world titles.

“It means the world to me. I think about all the training sessions and everyone that‘s helped me get me here, all the staff and my coach and family,” Greco said.

Paige Greco shows off her gold medal.

“I get teary just thinking about it because it means so much and I owe it all to them.”

“I used to love athletics and I never wanted to give cycling a go. I‘d been told that I’d be good at it and I should give it a go but I didn’t want to at the time.

“So like five years ago at Rio, I was just keen on athletics, I wasn’t too keen on cycling but I’m so glad I gave it a go. And then when I gave it a go, I loved it.”

Originally published as Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Emily Petricola, Paige Greco grab Aussie cycling gold at the velodrome