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If Paige Greco had chosen to withdraw from the upcoming Cycling World Championships – or quit the sport entirely, as she nearly did – those aware of what she’s been through in the past three months would have completely understood.
It’s not so much the physical injuries of her shocking crash in Italy that have been so difficult to deal with, severe and, for a time, uncertain as they were.
It’s more the psychological scars the 26-year-old Paralympic gold medallist has had to confront just to be able to ride again.
“I was wondering what would happen when I got back on the bike,” Greco said. “Would I have flashbacks? Am I going to freak out? I’ve never been through something like this before.
“It’s been rough. Very rough. For a while I didn’t know if I wanted to continue cycling. I was thinking about whether I should walk away from the sport and do something else. We didn’t know if Worlds was on the cards. We talked about how my health has to be the most important thing.”
Some of those conversations were with coach Dave Betts, who was one of the first at the crash scene and stayed with Greco for the first two nights she was in hospital before her brother arrived from London.
“She could have said ‘No, it’s too hard, I’m not doing this’, but she’s a fighter and she wants to go,” Betts said of Greco’s decision to compete at the Championships in Glasgow, starting on August 3.
“Paige does cycling because she wants to win and be the best. She’s had to fight hard and face some big demons with her impairment. But now, to do it all again – to want to do it – it shows the kind of person she is.
“She’s in unknown territory in a way, coming back from an accident like that. But she’s given herself every opportunity to be there.”
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The World Championships seem irrelevant compared to the events of April 21 at the Road World Cup event in Maniago, about 100 kilometres north of Venice.
Greco’s recollection is limited. She knows she had a minor mishap early in the race trying to avoid an obstacle but felt fine to continue.
“Then, 500 metres before the finish line, I can’t remember what happened, but I was going 45kph and I crashed straight into a wall,” she said.
“I might have been in the zone and not looking up, or maybe something went wrong with the bike, we don’t really know. I had a follow car but they had to turn off a bit before so no one actually saw what happened.”
No one saw what happened, they heard it.
Betts was driving the follow car, which he went to park while Greco rode down a tree-lined street towards the finish. He said she looked strong and on track to post a good time.
“I was heading back when the Belgian coach came over and said ‘Paige just crashed!’ I said ‘We know she crashed’, because she’d had that fall earlier on. He said ‘No, she just crashed now, at the finish!’
“The reason that coach knew was because their team physio had heard the crash and gone to Paige. He was the first one there and provided aid.”
An on-course ambulance crew was there within five minutes and Betts and two Australian team physios arrived soon after.
“Paige was on a stretcher, she had a neck brace on, there was a lot of blood around, her front tooth was knocked out and there was a lot of facial trauma. It was all quite confronting,” Betts said.
“I was pretty upset by what I saw, but Paige was scared and I was just trying to be positive and tell her she was in good hands and we’d get her to the hospital. I couldn’t say ‘You’ll be alright’ because I didn’t really know, to be honest.”
Greco underwent tests including a scan for possible internal bleeding.
“I remember I had this moment of ‘Oh no, my cute earrings and jewellery!’ They had to cut it all off and they cut me out of my skinsuit because I couldn’t lift my arms,” she said.
Greco’s injuries were substantial. Her nose was broken, she was heavily concussed and needed countless stitches to multiple wounds. A tooth was lost and another was cracked. She had whiplash and a major wound to her left elbow.
After two days, she was transferred to a different hospital which was equipped to treat the injuries to her mouth. Her teeth had punctured her bottom lip.
“I couldn’t feed myself because my arm was very sore. The injury to my left arm made day to day tasks difficult, as my right side is affected by cerebral palsy. It was hard to sleep because everything was so sore. When I first saw my face it was quite daunting.”
“It’s funny,” she adds. “I didn’t really know what had happened, but the team was going to Belgium next to race and apparently the first thing I said to my coach was, ‘Can I do Belgium?’ He was like, ‘Ah, no’.”
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Greco’s recovery is ongoing but she’s made great progress. She’s worked with a clinical psychologist and a neuro-physiotherapist to treat the effects of her concussion. She started riding again first on the ergometer and then the time trial bars. It’s been scary, she said, but she did it.
Greco recently posted a picture of herself back on the bike with an accompanying comment that she was feeling much better than in the second picture of the post, which was taken post-crash. The bike on which she’s riding is the same one she was on that day in April.
“Both wheels were totaled and the handlebars were all broken and bent,” Betts said. “But the frame is fine now. We had it repainted and she’s going to use it in Glasgow.”
The plan is to train at a team camp in Bordeaux before heading to the Championships to compete in the C-3 Individual Pursuit on the track and the Road Time Trial and Road Race. It’s a huge event, the first time all the Para- and able-bodied track and road cyclists will compete at one World Championship.
Greco said the program was similar to next year’s Paralympics and it was important for the team to secure Paris 2024 quota spots.
All in. All as one.
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Greco is deeply grateful to her teammates, AusCycling and coach Betts for their support. She felt reassured that if she opted not to go to the World Championships, it would be OK.
“But I’ve decided to give it a go,” she said. “We got plans in place, people I can go to if I need to. I don’t want to think about the outcome too much, just focus on the process going into a Paralympic year next year.
“Physically I’m in good shape. It’s just mentally … I don’t think I’m fully back to my old self.
“I’ve got some battle scars, but I love cycling and I love training. Going overseas and competing has always been a real passion of mine. It’s what drives me, it’s what makes me happy.”
By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 21 July 2023
Image: Paige Greco via Instagram
