'I never gave up hope' - Katie-George Dunlevy on winning Paralympic gold after shattering her collarbone
Paralympian Katie-George Dunlevy won three medals at the Paralympics in Paris. depsite shattering her collabone a couple of months earlier. The 42-year-old, who was born and raised in Crawley, has had an eventful year - starting with that fall at the World Cup in Italy in May.
But just six days after the tumble, Dunlevy was back on her back and determined to compete for a medal in Paris - to add to her golds from Rio and Tokyo.
And not only did she win a medal, Dunlevy won three - two silvers and a gold - making eight Paralympic medals in total, with four of them gold.
But just six days after the tumble, Dunlevy was back on her back and determined to compete for a medal in Paris - to add to her golds from Rio and Tokyo.
And not only did she win a medal, Dunlevy won three - two silvers and a gold - making eight Paralympic medals in total, with four of them gold.
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SportTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Mark Dunford. I'm Head of Sport for Sussex World and I'm delighted today to be joined by Katie George Dunleavy.
00:06Katie George has had a very eventful year so far.
00:09At the end of May, Katie and her pilot, Eve McChrystal, who represent Ireland, fell in the World Cup in Italy
00:15and she shattered her collarbone needing a plate, mesh and six screws to put it back together again.
00:20Six days after the operation, the 42-year-old was back on her bike determined to compete for a medal in Paris
00:26and she succeeded, winning silver in the 1,000m time trial with McChrystal
00:30and gold in the 48km with Linda Kelly.
00:33This was the third Paralympic gold time trial medal that Dunleavy has won.
00:38Katie then competed in Zurich in the first combined para and able-bodied World Road Championships.
00:44Dunleavy and Kelly rode a masterful 30km time trial, winning by over a minute
00:49before winning the 84.7km road race by more than a minute as well.
00:54This meant the Irish star retained her double gold championship win from Glasgow Worlds.
00:59So Katie, first of all, congratulations. How are you? And first of all, can we see your medals?
01:05Yeah, I'm good. I'm busy at the moment.
01:09And here's my gold medal from the time trial.
01:14Oh, that looks amazing. Is it heavy? Yeah?
01:16Yeah, they're 540g each.
01:18Yeah. Oh, incredible.
01:21And that's the front. And every medal has a piece of the Eiffel Tower.
01:25Oh, that's right. Yes, I did see that. Oh, wow.
01:28Gold and then there's silver medals.
01:31Lovely. The gold one looks much better, doesn't it? Excellent.
01:37How do they compare design-wise to the Rio ones, do you think?
01:41Rio and Tokyo are all different. The Tokyo ones are the same weight, really,
01:46and the Rio ones are a bit lighter.
01:49Yeah, they've all got kind of a really nice design of their own.
01:52These, how they catch the light, though, they're gorgeous.
01:55Yeah. And how do you display them at home?
01:58Well, see, these ones are just at the moment being carried around and shown around.
02:03So they haven't really actually sat down.
02:06They're actually getting a bit worn already, you wouldn't believe.
02:09But the other ones are kind of, would be in the attic a lot of the time, at my mum and dad's home.
02:15My father's worried that someone will come and take them.
02:17So he puts them up in the attic. No, fair enough. No, good way to hide them.
02:22I had them in my sock drawer. That's where I used to hide them.
02:26You took them around Crawley recently, didn't you, at the Emerald Club.
02:30How was that afternoon? Yeah, lovely. I was there last weekend.
02:33Really, really nice. Yeah, good gathering, actually.
02:36Lots of people came to see the medals and to chat. And that was lovely.
02:39And I'm going around a few schools in Crawley coming up as well.
02:42My sister's children's school. And then they're in Hayward Heath,
02:47where they're in Burgess Hill, and Burgess Hill.
02:51And then I will be going to Bramble Tire in East Grinstead in a few weeks time as well.
02:56And then probably other schools around. So I'm very popular.
03:01Yeah. Do you enjoy that part of it? Yeah, I love it, actually.
03:05Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I really love it. I enjoy it.
03:07And I love just seeing the faces of the kids.
03:10And they love and they ask really, really good questions.
03:14Sometimes they're really funny. So no, I get really good.
03:16And I enjoy seeing their reaction to the medals.
03:22Yeah. Oh, God, there's a lot of pressure on me to ask good questions now, isn't there?
03:26So when you look back on the summer you've just had and the year you've had,
03:33really, have you achieved what you wanted to achieve?
03:36I've surpassed really. When I broke my collarbone,
03:42I, of course, I didn't really give up hope or anything.
03:45I didn't leave positivity. I have an optimism and I knew I'd be in Paris.
03:50But whether I get gold and two silver, I wasn't sure if I could retain my title.
03:56Because the two time trials I had this year, I had actually lost.
04:00One I raced with Linda and we lost to a Great Britain bike.
04:03And one I lost with Eve a few weeks later and I lost to a Great Britain bike.
04:07But I kind of didn't give up hope. And even the silver on the track,
04:14we have no velodrome in Ireland. So we go abroad and we were really up against it.
04:18I just thought I would be lucky to get into the medal ride-offs and to come away with silver is like a gold.
04:23So actually, you know, even that is the silver is like a gold for us.
04:26And we were so close to getting the gold still. But just the challenges I've had this year.
04:33Yeah, I've been training hard though. You know, when I broke my collarbone five days later,
04:37six days later, I was on the bike training indoors.
04:41Weeks later I was outside, but I was indoors training and doing everything that I could do.
04:45So it's all about controlling what you can do. There's a lot of things I couldn't do with one arm,
04:49but there was plenty of stuff that I could do.
04:51And so I was focusing on what I could do and just working incredibly hard.
04:54And then as soon as I was out on the moving bike and on the track in the velodrome with Eve,
04:59out on the moving bike with Linda, I just kind of worked really hard and just go.
05:03I had to really kind of catch up in a way. And yeah, so I didn't lose faith,
05:08but I never thought that I would come away with all these medals,
05:11especially the Double World Championships a few weeks later.
05:13Because when I got back from Paris, I got COVID, so I was unwell before the World Championships.
05:18And then to return with Linda, it was just like a dream really.
05:25Yeah. So at no point did you think this isn't going to happen for me this year
05:29because of the collarbone. You just always thought I'm definitely competing.
05:32Yeah. No, because it's the collarbone, I just thought.
05:36And I did need an operation, like you said, to make some pins.
05:39It was shattered. And I was in agony at that time.
05:42I did think, oh, how am I going to do this? It's only three months and I should be training really hard this month.
05:47And I was kind of like not able to because I was trying to recover from my operation and there wasn't a lot of pain.
05:53So I was kind of going, oh, how is this going to happen?
05:56But I always thought I will do all I can do is my best and I will be there in some shape or another.
06:02What condition I'll be in, I don't know, but I have got time as well.
06:05And I was kept on getting told I had time.
06:09So I believe I just thought with those training camps that I had and the time I had training here,
06:13I just would just give it everything and that's all I can do.
06:15So it's just what you can control and kind of going all you can do is your best.
06:19And I'm one to go give my all and not sit around and, you know, do nothing.
06:24I'm not one to really work hard and everything.
06:27So I just thought just carry on doing what I've done in the past and just work on everything that I can.
06:32Now, looking at the Paralympics, you won silver with Eve and that was her last ride as your pilot.
06:39Was it a quite emotional race? Yeah.
06:42So, you know, before that, you don't really think about it.
06:44You're not like we didn't talk about it or anything.
06:46And we were just focused on what we were doing and then preparing for the races.
06:51As I said, I was, so I was unwell after Paris, but I was also unwell in the village in Paris.
06:55My first three days I was in bed and late evening I had to move into another room to isolate.
07:01So I had to isolate. Yeah.
07:03So we missed two of the four track sessions we had in preparation for the racing in Paris, which was not ideal.
07:10And I was again going, oh, my goodness, am I going to become well enough to race?
07:14And am I going to be able to get the power out, you know,
07:17that I can get out, that I need to get out for that short race?
07:20Because it's only 1K and the other one, then it's 3K that we won the silver medal in.
07:24So I was, yeah, that was mentally hard as well.
07:28Had to try and recover from that and get back training.
07:32So, yes, we didn't really think about it. It was all really focused on preparing and doing the training sessions,
07:38getting them under our belt, getting used to the tracks.
07:41Every track is different. And then making sure the bike's OK.
07:46And then we just focused on, did the racing. You were kind of like, you're in like blinkers, really.
07:51You're just kind of in tunnel vision preparing for that race, doing it.
07:54It was only after that we realised, like to get that silver medal for our last race together and Eve's last race with me.
07:59And it was just amazing. It's just like, like a fairy tale, really.
08:06As I said, we didn't, I kind of, I'm not trying not to be negative.
08:10And I was trying to get those negative thoughts out of your head. As an athlete,
08:12you always have kind of negative things come on your head, especially when you're like a nation that doesn't have a track.
08:16And the nations you're against have a track. You can be very like, we have the track, they have this time, they have this.
08:21And you're kind of going, oh, we don't have this. It's quite hard.
08:24But I kind of just thought, right, to use our experience that we've had in the past and just do what we've done before.
08:30And we've had good training under our belt and we're in good shape. And Eve was absolutely flying as well.
08:36So it was just kind of going, right, let's just do what we can.
08:39And it was only after that we really realised that it was quite emotional.
08:43Eve was very emotional after that. But we were just delighted to get that silver medal.
08:47It's just textbook, really. And I'm just so happy for her after her 10 years of dedication to the sport.
08:54Because it's a hard sport. You have to put a lot of hours in.
08:56And, you know, she'd be training at five in the morning to get the sessions done.
09:00And or in the evening around her children and work at times, getting the session done.
09:04She's such a driven individual and she's just given it her best.
09:07I was just so, so glad that she could finish with a silver medal on the pursuit in the Paralympics.
09:15And then you moved over to Linda. What are the main, what's it like changing pilots?
09:20And are there big differences between the two?
09:23It was definitely a challenge because me and myself and Eve were so used to each other at that point.
09:27So when we changed pilots a few years ago, it was a real challenge for us both.
09:32And yeah, it's like Linda and Jacey were kind of development riders on the squad.
09:37So they had to learn, like they had to learn an awful lot.
09:40And but I think, you know, they had, they were lucky in that they had me and Eve for experience.
09:45And we were on the bikes with them as well. So I was kind of our boss, Linda, around sometimes.
09:50But I was just telling her, she's fine. But she's like had to learn a lot.
09:58And it was so, it was a challenge for me.
10:00But it was and also going out on a tandem, having to trust someone else in the front as well.
10:05And who's new to racing a tandem. So you have to have huge trust as a stoker.
10:10And you know, I had to have trust in Linda because when racing, we're racing against other bikes and say, for example,
10:16in a road race or in a time trial and we go 80 plus kilometres an hour around on the roads.
10:23And as, as, as I know, as we, as we saw like this year, I crashed.
10:27It's a dangerous sport. You can, Linda got concussion as well in a race with me a few weeks before I broke my leg.
10:33It's a dangerous sport. So I have to have that trust.
10:35So I had challenges there with someone new on the front of the bike, you know, Linda.
10:40But it was a good challenge. I think it came at the right time for me.
10:43I needed it after, after Tokyo. So I know it was a challenge, but it was a good positive challenge.
10:50And Linda's a great racer. She's a fantastic time trialist.
10:53She loves time trials. I don't know why. I love the road race.
10:57Together we make a good team and she's great support.
10:59And we've gone away a lot this year on self-funded camps just to get that time in the tandem together,
11:05which just, I think, just made a big difference when it came to the races in Paris and Zurich this year.
11:10And can you give us an insight how it works during the races?
11:14I mean, are you barking orders at the pilot? Is the pilot talking to you?
11:18How does it work? Well, in the pursuit on the track, you know,
11:21one is saying one word because it's such a short effort and you're in full gear.
11:27Then on the time trial, again, the pilot is not saying anything to you really.
11:31Sometimes they do. They might tell you how much to go in the race because it's a timed effort.
11:36So they might say 3km to go, 2km to go or 5km or 1km.
11:41You know, they might just tell you the latter part of the kilometres to go.
11:44So, you know, you empty it right coming to the end.
11:48And they might tell you to go to your sidebars if you're unsure.
11:51But actually, I can kind of feel it. And we also have our sound piece in our ears.
11:56We have our coach behind us and he's telling Linda and myself to go to the side.
12:00Because it's a timed event. It's a timed thing. So the aerodynamics is really important.
12:04So even Linda's trying to stay as aero as much as the front.
12:07And she might not know that the corners are coming around.
12:09So that's why we have the coach behind us kind of telling us what's coming up on the road.
12:14So, yeah, again, they don't really say anything.
12:16But in a road race, a bit more communication at times.
12:19That's when you can kind of talk about them. Yeah, it's kind of communication both ways.
12:25But you're not too much you can say really. You're like working hard.
12:30You can't really sometimes. There's in the road race.
12:35There's times when it's a bit low in the race and you might be talking through what's happening or what's going on or what you're going to do.
12:42Yeah. OK. So the World Road Championships is the first combined able-bodied and para event, wasn't it?
12:51How nice was that? And does it help raise your profile?
12:57So last year in Glasgow was the first one, but they had track and road.
13:00But so the track was good in Glasgow because it was on the same time as the able-bodied.
13:04So our races were combined. So spectators were packed out spectator wise on the track.
13:11And then in the pits, it was really busy with all the able-bodied and the para athletes kind of preparing for their races.
13:16So that was really, you know what, that was really good practice for this year in Paris with the spectators having that noise and that quiet.
13:23In our World Championships, we would never have that on the track.
13:25We might have just a few people and that's usually my parents and that's it.
13:29So it's very different to have a quiet velodrome racing to suddenly the noise is electric.
13:34It's like I remember in a pursuit in my last two laps that my eardrums hurt from the amount of just the noise,
13:41the crowds, because it was just such a small enclosed space.
13:45And there were 6,000 people roaring because it was a fine racing for the medals.
13:49And I just remember my eardrums thinking, oh, my goodness, the noise.
13:54Wow. And so that was the last time we had that as well as this year.
13:59And then, unfortunately, in the Worlds last year in Dumfries, we were actually, so the able-bodied were racing in Glasgow and we were in Dumfries.
14:08So we were actually nowhere really like anywhere where they are.
14:12So we had spectators, we didn't have as many.
14:14But this year in Zurich, we kind of started in the same place and we were on the same courses as them.
14:19And then we finished in the centre of Zurich like they did.
14:22So the crowds were amazing and it was absolutely fantastic.
14:25And it's, yeah, it did. It has raised the profile, I think, because there was TV coverage, same as last year in Glasgow, there was TV coverage.
14:32So that always, it's all about visibility and seeing it.
14:36Like people don't see Paracycling because it's not televised.
14:39So to have it televised, which is just amazing and incredible, and then to have the spectators there and seeing it.
14:46And also having a crowd for us, you know, cheering us on when we're going through the start and finish, it's just so important.
14:52So hopefully that's the start of, yes, the start of, I think it's just hopefully it will come, you know, happen more often in the future.
15:00But that was a good change and that was really positive for our sport.
15:06Were you always expecting to win in the World Championships? I know you probably always think you're going to win.
15:10But did you feel it was good? Well, I was unwell beforehand.
15:15So I went into it going, I'm actually not sure how it's going to go.
15:18But I kind of just thought, OK, I had all my training leading up to Paris and hopefully that form will bring me through.
15:24But the same with the car competitors would be the same in the same place.
15:27So I just hope that we were able just to get out what we could in Paris in a time trial.
15:31I really focused on the time trial first. That was the first race.
15:34And it really did suit us as a course. It was hilly and it had downhills as well, of course, and flat parts.
15:39But it suited us. And yeah, so we just kind of really just, I wanted to defend my titles, of course, that we won in Glasgow.
15:47You just never know what's going to happen in a day as long as you just do your best and see where you come.
15:51And we were able to win by a huge margin, which was amazing.
15:57So, yeah, we're just thrilled with that. And then the road race, because we won silver in Paris, I didn't defend my title from Tokyo.
16:03So I was disappointed with that. And that was partly due to us not racing well, to be honest with you.
16:08So I tried to make, you know, sometimes when you lose and you're still a silver medal,
16:13which is amazing after all the challenges, you know, you could have fallen, you could have, we could have fallen on the bike and we could have had mechanical.
16:19So I was actually, I think all my family were happy for me to finish safely and to finish the race.
16:25So we won a silver. Amazing. But of course, I'm slightly disappointed because I wanted to retain my title.
16:30You know, I'm a competitor, I'm a racer. But that's that is when you learn things.
16:34And, you know, Linda learned a lot as well. I think when you lose, you know, when you lose or you don't get what you hope to get, you learn more.
16:41So we were able to analyse that and learn from that and then make a change in, you know, in Zurich in the World Championships and then win.
16:49So we were just delighted with that. I was a bit kind of going, I wish this happened in Paris, but hey, hey.
16:57Yeah. And you mentioned your mum and dad there going to support you and stuff.
17:01I've seen pictures you've shared on social media of the support you've had.
17:04How delighted and proud are you to have that support watching you?
17:08I'm just very lucky. I had a lot of my family in Paris, in the Velodrome and on the roads and the Time Trial.
17:14I just feel incredibly lucky to have that support and they're so proud.
17:19And I'm just, I think that kind of spurs you on to race because you know that they're just backing you and you want to do well for them as well after the support that they've given you.
17:28So I want to make them proud. And so, you know, the medals really, it's partly theirs as well.
17:33They're part of my team and I just feel incredibly grateful and lucky to have that support.
17:39And as my sister said, it kind of brings the family together, those kind of events, which are really lovely and really special.
17:46And yeah, so what happens now? Are you training for the next event? What is the next event?
17:52Yeah, I get back training now, building it up again, just trying to keep moving. I had a few weeks off.
17:59Yeah, next event, I'm not sure. So there'll be World Championships next year in Belgium, I think, and there'll be World Cups and things.
18:05So that's, you know, towards the, that's towards kind of the spring, summertime.
18:10I don't know if there's Track Worlds next year, which will be March. Yeah, I'll chat to my coach soon enough.
18:15But there will be things next year to prepare for. So I'll just start training for that now.
18:19So you have to put a lot of training in as a cyclist for like a race in May, Jean. You have to start training now really hard for it.
18:26Really? And how much is that per week? I assume it builds up as you get close to the event, but how much do you sort of do?
18:31Well, you build up now, you do a lot of base things, aerobics, trying to get your aerobic conditioning back, your base kind of fitness back up.
18:40And then you start doing intervals kind of January, February. You might do a bit, lots of strength work this time, this end of the year as well.
18:49But really, you're doing six, seven days a week already. We'll start doing six, seven days a week.
18:53It's all about consistency with cycling. You wouldn't have too much time off, you'd lose fitness.
18:59So it's just actually consistent six, seven hours, six, seven days a week.
19:03Could be doing four or five hours a day. You know, you're doing 20, 25 hours per week a lot of the time.
19:09So, yeah, it's huge amount of time. So, you know, you might be doing 15 to really 20, 15 at the moment when you build it up.
19:18And then you kind of, yeah, you would ramp it up to 20, 25 at times. So it's actually full.
19:22It's full time. You have to recover from that. And then you have to, the next day you're training again.
19:26So eating is important. You're sleeping, recovery. You can't be going walking around.
19:30You can't be going out, that kind of thing. So it's a lot of sacrifices, miss out on a lot of things.
19:37Yeah. And where do you train? Are you just riding around the roads of Sussex or are you?
19:42Well, I train mainly indoors on a turbo.
19:45So that's one I'm trying to mentally get back again because I'll be doing three, four hours indoors on the bike where others go out.
19:52And then I do occasionally I'll go over to Ireland to train with Linda on the road.
19:57I have a bit, you know, but, you know, this time of year you wouldn't really be going or even January, February because the weather in Ireland can be terrible.
20:04You wouldn't go out on a bike. So we'd probably go abroad or April time I go over to Ireland.
20:09It tends to be OK then. So I'd be going out on a bike.
20:12Otherwise, I spend a lot of time actually indoors this time of year, just indoors and then doing gym as well. Strength training and conditioning.
20:20Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Katie. And congratulations.
20:23It's been an incredible year. And I'm sure you'll be up for a few sports personality awards like you always are as well.
20:30Thank you. Thanks so much. Excellent. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye.
20:35Bye.