Player Name

Gautier, Shelley

Type

Athlete

Sport

Para-Cycling

Is Part Of

Niagara Falls Virtual Sports Wall of Fame

Inducted

2024

Description

Shelley Gautier was a competitive mountain biker in 2001, when she crashed her bike on holiday in Vermont, crushing her helmet and sustaining a severe head injury. Following this, she spent 6 weeks in a coma, and then 8 months in a Toronto rehab learning to walk and talk again. As a result, the right side of her body is affected by hemiplegia (one-sided paralysis).
This injury, however, was not the end of Shelley's athletic career. Following her recovery she began competing in disabled sailing, racing across Canada and the United States before switching over to para-cycling.
In 2009, Shelley became the first T-1 rider in international para-cycling. She has won a total of nineteen medals in the Union Cycliste Internationale Para-Cycling Road World Championships time trial and road race events, with eighteen of them being gold. Shelley has also competed in multiple Parapan American Games, earning silver medals in 2011 and in 2015. She has also competed in three Paralympic Games: London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, and London 2020, earning a Bronze medal in the women's T-1 time trail in 2016. This made her the only T-1 female para-cyclist from any country in the world to medal at a Paralympic Games.
In 2015, Shelley was inducted into the Inaugural Toronto Sports Hall of Honour and awarded the Sports Niagara Para-Athlete of the Year in para-cycling. She competed and was awarded a silver medal in the mixed time trial event at the 2015 Parapan American Games and founded the Shelley Gautier Para-Sport Foundation to allow access to para-sport for people with disabilities. Shelley's cycling career has been outstanding and she continues to complete at the world level and inspires others to do the same.

This image may not be reproduced without the written consent of the City of Niagara Falls Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture

Subject

Awards

​Sports - Para-Cycling

Niagara Falls Virtual Sports Wall of Fame

Portraits - Biographical