PROJECT PARIS

From 1-2 September 2024, the third Paralympic paratriathlons events will hit the cobbled streets of Paris. And, as ever, Team GB is poised to pick up more podiums. Here's everything you need to know about the 11-strong squad, their rivals and how to catch every single second of the action...

- TIM HEMING

Recovering from a stroke in a hospital in 2008, Mel Nicholls became captivated by the action from Beijing. The idea of para-triathlon at the Paralympic Games wasn’t on the radar. In fact, it wasn’t for another eight years that swim, bike and run would make its debut in Rio, but Nicholls needed a bit of inspiration. A car crash seven years earlier had left her with a heart condition that brought on repeated strokes and this time she wouldn’t be able to return to running or cycling.

“I thought: ‘Do you know what, I could try that?!” Nicholls says about the wheelchair competition she was watching. Roll forward to 2024 and the 47-year-old is now a veteran of two Paralympics. In Paris she will make history as Team GB’s first female wheelchair paratriathlete to compete at a Paralympics.

“Switching to triathlon was a bet!” Nicholls continues. “I started training with my local tri club in Tewkesbury and my friends gave me some banter about Paris being not far away. I’d always swam for cross-training, but had no interest in racing triathlon because I thought it was too short!”

While the 750m swim, 20km bike ride (handcycle) and 5km run (wheelchair push) would be plenty of exercise for most ordinary folk, Nicholls was more used to ultradistance endeavours. As an example, in the summer that USA’s Kendall Gretsch and Australia’s Lauren Parker were duking it out in one of the most exciting triathlon finishes ever in Tokyo (look it up online), Nicholls was on a 75-day, 4,800-mile handcycle journey around the coast of the United Kingdom.