Some of Darren’s earliest and fondest memories are of riding bikes. From age 10 to 29 BMX was his chosen discipline and it was a love that never wavered.
However, a motor vehicle accident in 2014 changed all of that. Darren suffered severe leg and neck trauma, his right leg was amputated above the knee, his left leg was fractured and his C2 vertebra was so severely broken it required a surgical fixation. His BMX dreams were over.
After a hard and at times very dark three months after the accident, Darren rode a bike again for the first time – only this time as an amputee using a prosthetic leg.
In April 2015, Darren competed for the first time as a Para-athlete. However, after losing by 50 minutes in his first race, and 41 minutes in his second, this first foray into Para-cycling proved short-lived.
A chance meeting six months later with Loz, a local cycling coach, put Darren back on track. The big difference this time was that he was no longer using a prosthetic, instead pedalling with only his left leg. It felt crazy to him at the time, he says, but it turned out to be the beginning of an incredible new life.
In 2017 Darren won his first national title. Later that year, making his first national squad and earning selection for the Road World Championships, he brought home silver medals in the Time Trial and Road Race.
Darren became a two-time World Champion in 2019, as well as setting a world record time (3:33.2) in the C2 3km Individual Pursuit. This success saw him named as Cycling Australia’s 2019 Male Road Para-cyclist of the Year.
He wore the green and gold at his first Games at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, clinching his first Paralympic medal – a silver in the men’s 3000m individual pursuit.
Darren set out with the ambition of winning a gold medal at Tokyo and this goal was realised in his second event at the Games. In the 24-kilometre men’s time trial C2, he stopped the clock at 34:39.87 to become a Paralympic champion.
He finished his Tokyo campaign in the men’s road race C1-3 event, battling through rainy conditions on the Fuji Speedway to finish in 12th position with a time of 2:12:10
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