Keely Shaw and Kate O’Brien, who each have a medal in C4 track cycling, are racing again Monday evening.
Shifting to road cycling, the pair of Paralympians will compete in the women’s road cycling time trial.
O’Brien secured a silver on the weekend in the C4 500-metre time trial, while Shaw earned Canada’s first medal, a bronze, in the C4 3000-metre individual pursuit on the day the Games opened.
Shaw will be looking for some redemption.
After trailing Australia’s Emily Petricola and the United States’ Shawn Morelli, who finished first and second respectively, in the 3,000-metre pursuit, the riders will be facing off again in the road time trial.
“Come next week we are on the road for the road races, and I’m quite excited,” Shaw said, after winning her bronze. “I came into cycling as a time trialist, so I’m really excited to get back on that time trial bike.”
On Friday morning, O’Brien was leading the 500-metre time trial until Great Britain’s Kadeena Cox, the last rider, took the gold, beating the Calgary resident and setting a world record — one the Canadian had set in 2020.
“It’s kind of the first time in my sporting career that I’ve realized my best wasn’t the gold medal-winning best,” O’Brien said. “ I did what I could today. It’s actually an amazing feeling being here with everyone and coming back after my injury four years ago.”
O’Brien, a former Olympian in 2016, survived a devastating cycling accident in 2017 and against the odds she has made it back to the world stage.
“I wasn’t necessarily supposed to walk or speak or ride,” she said. “It sort of blows my mind that I’m back on the track and doing the sport that I love.”
Canada has three para-cycling medals so far in Tokyo and is looking to add to the collection.
“I’m hoping to … celebrate a little bit and enjoy what we’ve accomplished here on the Izu track,” Shaw said. “There’s been so many people who stayed up late in Canada in order to watch this.”