Kavanagh takes home bronze in Paralympics
<p>Sam Kavanagh, center, on the winner podium at the USA Cycling Championships in June.</p>
Paralympian Sam Kavanagh will come home from London with a bronze medal in the mixed team sprint in cycling.
The 33-year-old Coram native won the medal with teammates Jennifer Schuble and Joseph Berenyi. The bicycle race is run on the Velodrome track, a steep-banked indoor race track.
Kavanagh also came in 22nd in the C 4-5 road race, seventh in the men’s individual time trial and men’s individual pursuit, and 15th in the men’s 1-kilometer time trial.
Kavanagh now lives in Castle Rock, Colo., where he trains for the games and makes his living as a motivational speaker. His parents, Bill and Kristin Kavanagh, live in Coram and traveled to London to watch him compete, as did his wife Sara, a Columbia Falls High School graduate.
“Most memorable moments were seeing Sara, my parents and all the U.S. Paralympics staff and teammates in the stands screaming,” he wrote on Twitter after winning the bronze. “Thank you.”
A few days later he reflected on the games.
“Cannot put into words how grateful I am for all the support and cheering you all have given me,” he wrote on Twitter. “What a journey.”
Kavanagh lost his left leg below the knee in 2005 after he was struck by an avalanche while skiing in the backcountry of Montana’s Centennial Range.
This was his first Paralympics. The games wrapped up on Sept. 9.