PARIS — For someone who is relatively new to para-cycling, Dennis Connors sure is good.
He won a gold medal in last year’s World Championships but knows the only way to top that is to do it during the Paris Paralympics.
“Being part of Team USA at the Paralympic Games, it is just a bigger representation of the country,” Connors said. “The World Championship is a big deal within the sport, but the Paralympics are even bigger.”
For Connors, representing the United States is a big deal, no matter how you’re doing it.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “I have been representing my country since I was 16 years old, on the youth national climbing team, and then as a Marine for nine years.”
Connors was deployed to Iraq three times while in the military. It was there where he said he suffered several traumatic brain injuries. However, he never said anything because he wasn’t sure what to say.
“I guess I should have said something, but you couldn’t. And what I did in the military, if I left my job, there was a vacuum of intelligence. And people’s lives are on the line,” he told KSL-TV. “So, you just dealt with it, sucked it up, and kept going.”
Connors eventually left the military, got properly diagnosed, and moved to Utah with his wife to go to grad school to study recreation and tourism.
“Go Utes,” he said with a smile while flashing the U. sign with both hands.
He eventually fell in love with para-cycling as a way to just decompress.
“I train really hard, very consistent,” he said. “But those days where I can, like, my coach just puts like a four-hour bike ride, or a six-hour ride on my schedule, and it is sunny, and I can go out, those are some of the best days.”
Now, he is having better days as well and has become a big advocate for mental health, especially for veterans.
“I tell every single one of them who is getting out, I do not care what you do, but you need to have an MRI and tell them all the brain injury stuff before you get out,” said Connors.
Connors is set to compete Wednesday, Sept. 4, and Saturday, Sept. 7, in Paris.
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Publish date : 2024-08-30 05:10:00
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