Elouan Gardon, an 18-year-old cyclist and resident of Acme will compete at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games beginning in late August.
Gardon is originally from the North Bay area of California and moved with his parents to the South Fork Valley in 2022. He enjoys huge gravel rides on the steep logging roads of Whatcom County and frequently pedals the 4,400-foot hill climb to Artist’s Point.
Born with a limb deficiency that made his left arm significantly shorter than his right, Gardon started mountain biking in 2020 and said he quickly fell in love with the sport. He raced downhill and enduro events and finished mid-pack, limited by his upper body strength. He switched to road racing in 2022 and got hooked on the rush of winning.
Gardon only recently learned about para-cycling and attended his first event in April — the U.S. Paralympics Cycling Road Open in Bryan, Texas, which he won in convincing fashion. He competes in the men’s C5 category, a para-cycling classification based on functional disability which means he uses standard equipment (C) and has the lowest degree of physical impairment (5).
Gardon is the youngest of the 13 U.S. Paralympics Cycling team members. He punched his ticket to Paris at the PossAbilities U.S. Paralympics Cycling Time Trial held in Loma Linda, California, in July.
Because he qualified as the team’s track specialist despite having more experience in road racing, Gardon is focusing his training efforts in the coming weeks on improving his track technique. He’s currently at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, then will head to Majorca with the team for a week of final preparation before the main event.
“Majorca also has a track that we will be able to use, which is a similar shape to the one in Paris, which is important for practice,” Gardon wrote in an email.
His first race is set for Friday, Aug. 30. Supporters can follow along at paralympic.org/paris-2024. After his Paralympic debut, Gardon plans to head to Zurich, Switzerland for the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
