Tristen Chernove has picked up his Paralympic career right where he left off – on the podium.
The 46-year-old from Cranbrook, B.C. captured a silver medal this morning in the men’s C1 cycling 3,000m individual pursuit.
Chernove qualified for the gold-medal race with a time of 3:40:591, second only to RPC’s Mikhail Astashov, who set a world record with his time of 3:35:954. The Russian also bested Chernove in the medal race.
“The qualifying ride went fairly well and I was super thrilled to make the final,” Chernove said. “The final, not so great. I knew he (Astashov) would go out fast and I probably started too fast and was having some breathing issues.”
The Cranbrook native now has four Olympic medals to boast, adding this morning’s hardware to the gold, bronze and silver he won in Rio 2016. The father of two looks to add more medals before shifting his focus elsewhere.
“It’s a pretty emotional games for me because I am retiring from para-cycling after these games and devoting much more of my time to my family … I’m really excited to move on to the next phase,” he said.
Chernove has cycled his entire life, but his competitive career began in 2009 when he was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, a chronic nerve disorder that affects his lower legs.
Following the diagnosis, Chernove began competitively cycling to test the limits of his body, and in 2015 was encouraged to try for the para-cycling team.
“I thought, ‘Hey, if I am going to be cycling to counteract the degenerative nature of this disease, maybe I should think of doing (Paralympic cycling) too,’” Chernove said to Quinton Amundson of CBC sports in 2016.
One year later, the Canadian found himself on the podium three times, and five years after that, a podium finish yet again.
Off the track, Chernove has made headlines as well. In 2020 he completed a 1,000-km ride through British Columbia, raising $33,000 for the Paralympic Foundation of Canada.
Chernove will race next on Friday in the track time trial.