Accidental triathlete Nic Beveridge on fast track to Tokyo with some help from an Aussie legend
Nic Beveridge never wanted to be an athlete but now he is on a quest to compete in Tokyo next year thanks to a TV show about someone he had never met, living on the side of the world.
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Nic Beveridge never wanted to be an athlete, never even considered sport would play a big part in his life until he watched a short segment on TV about a woman he didn’t know, living on the other side of the world.
It’s why the Ryde athletes life is now consumed by sport and a quest to be competing in Tokyo next year.
Watching the 2012 Paralympics on TV while rehabilitating from surgery to address deterioration in his body, partial paraplegic Beveridge was struck by a backstory of one of the athletes.
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“Good things come in weird ways,’’ Beveridge said. “Watching the Paralympics didn’t inspire me to be a Paralympian. I thought it was cool. But it didn’t resonate with me.
“ It was just this one athlete. I think she was Canadian. This athlete lost her leg and went and climbed Kilimanjaro. That actually inspired me.’’
Beveridge, who is studying law, typed ‘extreme endurance para sport’ into a search engine and up popped the name of an Australian legend - now retired paratriathlon gun Bill Chaffey, a five time world champion, Hawaii ironman triathlete and one of the pioneers of the sport.
My brain was the same as the day before but I was in a different body. The world didn’t make sense
“I read an article about him training for the Hawaii ironman and for the second time in my life I was inspired,’’ said Beveridge, who woke up when 17 to find he was paralysed from the waist down for a rare neurological condition.
Fast forward a year and with the help of Chaffey Beveridge borrowed a hand cycle and race chair and competed in his first paratriathlon.
Three years on he finished ninth at the Rio Paralympics - a result he is keen to improve on if he qualifies for Tokyo - and won a silver at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
“I’m an incomplete paraplegic but in a chair,” Beveridge said. “I got my disability when I was 17. It was the start of a second life. My brain was the same as the day before but I was in a different body.
“The world didn’t make sense. Everyone is different on how they recalibrate and it took me nine years until I started pursuing sport at this level.”
Beveridge, 33, has enlisted some big names to help him qualify and then achieve at next years Paralympics.
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The paratriathlete now trains under the guidance of Paralympic legend Louise Sauvage and alongside wheelchair racer Madi de Rozario.
“Some people used to joke that you were a triathlete because you weren’t good enough to do just one leg.’’ he said.
“Now you have to technically be a specialist in all three and Louise is making me focus on my technique and being efficient.’’