Parapan Ams Gold Medals Put Tandem Riders Chadwick And Espinoza In Fast Lane For Paris

The gold medals were a bonus.

After forming a partnership with pilot Skyler Espinoza less than a year ago, tandem cyclist Hannah Chadwick had little idea of what to expect at her first Parapan American Games this past November in Santiago, Chile.

The duo won the women’s 3,000-meter individual pursuit race on the first day of the Para track competition, then won another gold medal the next day in the 1,000-meter time trial.

“That was definitely very unexpected,” said Chadwick, a 31-year-old resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “A really good experience. Just had so much fun.”

The competition in Santiago finished up a breakout season for a tandem pair who started working together last February.

Before their pair of golds in Chile, they won a bronze medal at the UCI Cycling World Championships in August.

“I didn’t really know if I was going to make it anywhere, really,” Chadwick said. “I didn’t know if I was going to worlds or Pan Ams. So medaling was definitely not something I thought of. Really unexpected. When you do start a new partnership, you kind of have to start over.”

Espinoza was a rower at Columbia University and then rowed for Stanford University’s national championship team as a graduate student before teaming up with Chadwick, a visually impaired athlete who made it to her first world championships in 2022 with former tandem partner Mary-Kate Wintz.

“I think it helped that Hannah has been doing this for a couple of year now,” Espinoza said, “so I wasn’t getting on the bike with an inexperienced stoker.”

Chadwick and Espinoza were one of two U.S. teams that competed in both the Parapan Ams and world championships, joining men’s riders Michael Stephens and Joe Christiansen.

They train separately most of the time, with Espinoza in California and Chadwick in Colorado Springs.

“She’s just overall a really incredible human being,” Chadwick said. “I feel very lucky and grateful for such an awesome teammate.”

Chadwick, who was born in China and moved to Arcata, California, when she was adopted by Patricia Chadwick and Stephen Dias at age 12, is surrounded by the support she needs in Colorado Springs.

“I love it here. I’m so grateful,” said Chadwick, a 2016 University of California Davis graduate. “I don’t think I’d be able to do it without the support of the team. I live on campus most of the time. It’s just so awesome to be able to have access to food, to PT, to dietitians, sports bikes. Literally, everything is here. I don’t think there is a place that’s better to train than here.”

Preparation is now beginning for a run by Chadwick and Espinoza targeted on the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Chadwick is beginning a new block of training on her own, but the world championships for Para track cycling is coming up in March and it serves as a qualifier for the Paralympic Games.

“It’s hard to tell who’s going to make the team,” Chadwick said. “We can only do what’s in our control. I’m excited to see the progress that we are going to make together and to train hard, work hard and see where it gets us.”

That’s why the Parapan Ams were so important. The competition in Santiago could help build momentum for Chadwick and Espinoza heading into worlds.

“Knowing that we’ve made this much progress in less than a year working together,” Chadwick said, “I think, is really helpful for us to know and to be confident mentally and then physically and just continue to put your heads down and train leading up to next year.”

The Parapan Ams also gave Chadwick an opportunity to see a truly diverse athletic competition.

“You learn what it’s like to live at the athletes’ village and the resources that are available to you there,” she said. “Training and then actually competing with so many athletes from all over the world. And also meeting athletes that are in different sports. I’ve been to two world championships for cycling and when you meet people there, everybody’s cycling. At Parapans, you meet athletes that are doing a lot of different sports, and that’s super cool.”

Chadwick’s rise in the tandem biking world has been quick since discovering the sport and attending her first cycling camp in 2019.

“I really have always enjoyed exercising and being active,” she said. “I went to this camp and that’s when I found out more about racing. I think I took to the track pretty quickly. I want to go fast and not have to worry about outside elements.”

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.