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"For me the tandem is an equalizer where my blindness does not matter. On the tandem, I'm just another cyclist trying to win a race. I cannot cycle without a tandem partner serving as my eyes."
- visually impaired U.S. Paralympic Cyclist,
Jason Bryn
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Tandem duo Jason Bryn (Tucson, AZ) and Glenn Bunselmeyer (Bellevue, WA) have sights set on a tandem world title. The two U.S. Paralympic National Cycling Team members are in the height of training for the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games in September.
Jason is legally blind from a hereditary eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa. He is night blind and has tunnel vision from a limited visual field. Off the bike Jason uses a white cane to get around. Despite his visual impairment a tandem bike and a sighted partner called a "pilot" allows Jason to cycle and race against national and international competition.
Due to Jason's progressive vision loss, the last time he road a single bike was in 1988 when he ran into the back of a parked dump truck at high speed that he literally did not see. Jason is no stranger to athletic achievement. He was a high school and college basketball standout prior to significant vision loss.
Jason welcomes the opportunity to show that a disability does not always have to be disabling. This is evident in his personal life as a cyclist and as a husband and father of three children (one of whom has the same eye disease) and in his professional life as a disability rights advocate and attorney.
For Jason, Athens is the final step of a four year goal to represent the U.S. in the 2004 Paralympic Games. Jason competed in the 2002 Paralympic Cycling World Championships in Germany with a different pilot. Unfortunately, they suffered a crash during the road race in a rainstorm causing broken leg injuries to his pilot.
The duo are the 2004 Tour of the Tucson Mountains champions. This Spring at a Paralympic training camp and the U.S. Paralympic Trials Bunselmeyer and Bryn exceeded time trial times of the three mens tandem medalists from the 2002 World Championships.
"By beating past medalist times, we know we have a shot at Athens", says Bryn. In May the two earned one of the 15 U.S. team slots allotted by the International Paralympic Committee. The U.S. Paralympic Cycling Team was awarded the highest number of team positions for Athens as the number one ranked nation in the world based on IPC world cup performances over the past several years.
The duo qualified for Athens at U.S. Paralympic Trials and National Championships by averaging over 30 mph in the 20 kilometer time trial event. "That is fast...very fast given that we start from a standing start and have to slow down to turn around halfway through the time trial." A time trial is known as the ‘race of truth' since it is a race against the clock, wind and course terrain with no drafting of other bikes permitted. "In a time trial wehave to keep our speed over 30 mph almost the whole time".
To maximize medal potential most U.S. Paralympic cyclists must prepare for both the road and track disciplines. Bryn and Bunselmeyer will be competing in the road race and time trial events as well as the kilometer and 4 kilometer pursuit events on the velodrome track.
Team training will be conducted at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in the months
of June and August. With 2000 miles separating Bryn and Bunselmeyer, training camps and periodic national competitions are very important to fine tune their skills together. Jason has five Tucson cyclists who serve as Jason's training pilots for daily training and local races.
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