Paris Gold Follows Samantha Bosco Home to Southern California

The gold medal that Samantha Bosco won in Paris is never far away from her grasp.

“It’s currently sitting on my couch,” the two-time Paralympian said with a laugh one recent day by phone from her home in Claremont, California.

Bosco’s first gold-medal moment, which arrived in the women’s time trial C4, ended a dramatic and determined three-year journey toward the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. After winning a pair of bronze medals in her Paralympic Games debut in 2016, she was headed for a spot in the Tokyo Games five years later when a crash resulted in a traumatic head injury.

What followed was a recovery and rehabilitation journey that included four world titles in 2022 and 2023, and a string of world cup road victories.

And then, gold in Paris.

The moment was summed up in one word by the Southern Californian: “Everything.”

“It meant all of the struggle, all of the highs and lows, all the people that were there throughout all of that, who picked me off the ground, who sat in the harder days with me, who celebrated the easier day,” she said. “It just says it all culminated in that medal for me, and to know that I could do it with them and with their support and their belief. It’s indescribable.”

Ian Lawless, director of U.S. Paralympics Cycling, recalled Bosco fighting through the nerves as she checked off every milestone in her comeback.

“It was a long journey for her to get back,” he said. “To be able to get back to that level and then be able to actually get to the start line in Paris was a big deal for her.”

When she did get to the start line in Paris, looking on were her husband, Andrew, and her parents, Tammie and John Heinrich.

“That was amazing,” Bosco said. “It was my parents’ first international trip, which was even more exciting that they made the trek.”

“We were really happy for her,” Lawless added. “Her family was there, which was also awesome. And she was able to celebrate with them, literally on the spot, which was great.”

And that’s why, back home in California, the gold medal is sitting on a couch.

Bosco and her gold medal have made plenty of appearances together already. She participated in a hometown parade in Claremont. She was one of the honorees during NASCAR’s championship weekend in November in Phoenix. She was a featured speaker at the 4th Annual 360° Miracle Holiday Tea in Dana Point, California, and went to New York City to attend the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports.

And she always brings the medal during her mentoring visits to elementary schools in Claremont.

“They can’t believe that there’s a piece of the Eiffel Tower in the middle,” Bosco said of the schoolkids. “I think that makes them more excited than it actually being gold.”

Watching those fifth graders, Bosco already sees something growing.

“Just watching them play sports and interact and have a good time, you could see how much it means to have that presence and have something to look forward to,” she said.

“There are so many people in future generations that are just going to make this sport seem even more incredible.”

After winning the time trial in Paris, Bosco finished fourth in the road race, then fought off a sickness to win gold and silver medals at the world championships a few weeks later in Zurich, Switzerland.

While she was competing in Zurich, the gold medal was on a plane back to the States with Andrew.

“I basically told him to not lose it because I would be absolutely devastated,” Bosco said.

“The joke is, if he lost it,” she said a laugh, “he’d better find a new house, also.”

Bosco is taking some time off during the offseason. But then the road toward the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028 begins. She’ll be competing in world cup road events in spring 2025.

“I’ve always wanted to go to LA28,” she said. “When it was announced as a bid city for 2024, that was like the goal. And then when they got 2028, I basically just looked over at Andrew. OK, it’s just four more years.”

Bosco was born in 1987, three years after Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympic Games. It wasn’t until four years later in Seoul, South Korea, that the Olympic and Paralympic Games began sharing the same host city.

The track competition in 2028 will be held at the VELO Sports Center in Carson, California, a facility that is used by U.S. Paralympics Cycling for national championships and training camps. The road course is not yet determined.

“It is home,” Bosco said. “I’ve ridden these streets.”

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USParaCycling.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.