On a bike-riding holiday to Mount Snow, Vt. in 2001, Shelley Gauthier remembers having a great day, crashing through the trails on her mountain bike ... and then something went wrong.
Gauthier woke up from a coma six weeks later to realize that she couldn't talk, she couldn't remember how to read and she was completely paralyzed on the right side of her body.It would take her months of rehab just to be able to leave the hospital and years of continually pushing her body and mind to reacquire what so many of us take for granted.
"I was pushing myself because I just wanted to be a normal human being, living a normal everyday life."
Somewhere along that journey, the focus changed in the most positive sense, because Gauthier is not just another person you pass on the street. Spend a short amount of time with her and you quickly realize that she is so much more – after all, it's not every day that you get to meet a world champion cyclist.
Last month, the Niagara Falls native won a World Cup race as a Team Canada member in Roskilde, Denmark in the Female T1 See More
