Avalanche victim headed to London

Coram native to compete in Paralympics

New Year’s Day in 2005, high in the Centennial Mountains, Coram native Sam Kavanagh was lying in the snow, wondering if he’d even survive.

An avalanche had come raging down the mountain while he was backcountry skiing with friends. The slide killed his good friend, Blake Morstad, 24, of Billings, and shattered Kavanagh’s left leg below the knee.

Death was close as he suffered with a compound fracture for two days in the backcountry until help arrived. Thirteen days later, doctors amputated his left leg below the knee.

Much has changed since then. Kavanagh has recovered, working through a host of surgeries and setbacks. He started competitive bicycle racing and has been successful. He’s appeared in films and commercials, and last month he learned that he made the U.S. Paralympics Team in cycling.

As one might expect, Kavanagh is more than a little stoked at the prospect of going to London.

“We’ve been working six years for this,” he said in an interview last week. “It’s surreal to fully comprehend ... It’s settling in where we’re getting pretty excited.”

In April, Kavanagh, 33, and his family moved to Castle Rock, Colo., so he could fully devote his time to train for the Paralympics.

He bikes about 300 miles a week, full-tilt up gruesome hills around his house, where roads climb to 10,000 feet in a hurry.

He’s also just a 30-minute drive to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. He recently won the time trial at the USA Cycling National Championships in June and took second in the criterion race.

In the Paralympics, he’ll compete in five events — the Kilo, the 4 kilometer individual pursuit, the team pursuit, the road race and the time trial. The first three races are done on a velodrome track — a steep-banked oval track.

The games run from Aug. 29 through Sept. 9. Kavanagh said he couldn’t have done it without the support of his wife Sara and his family.

Sara watches their two children Amelia, 3, and Nolan, 1, while Sam travels to races and speaking engagements. He makes a living as a motivational speaker and was on the road 187 days last year.

Bicycling isn’t cheap, either. He owns three bikes at $7,000 apiece. The cost of maintaining them largely comes out of his pocket — there isn’t much sponsorship money for paralympians, he noted.

Kavanagh likes his chances in bringing home some hardware from London but cautions that a race can be decided by the thinnest of margins.

“The field is so competitive. You can go from a gold medal to sixth-place if you miss a shift in a race,” he said. “The objective is to have a race that represents the best that I can do.”

Kavanagh has kudos for the Flathead Valley. “We’ve always felt incredibly cared for and supported by the Flathead Valley,” he said.