Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / Overcoming Adversity: Jaco Van Gass's Journey from Soldier to Paralympic Gold

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Overcoming Adversity: Jaco Van Gass's Journey from Soldier to Paralympic Gold · Zone2Speak Podcast

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Welcome to Zone to Speak. Today, we are honored to have an extraordinary guest,
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Jaco Van Gaas, a Paralympic gold medalist, world champion cyclist,
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motivational speaker, and true inspiration.
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Jaco's story is one of resilience, determination, and triumph.
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After sustaining life-changing injuries while serving in the British Army,
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he not only overcame adversity, but he excelled in the world of cycling,
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achieving incredible feats on both the track and the road.
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In this episode, we dive into Jaco's journey from soldier to elite athlete,
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exploring the mindset and discipline it takes to rise to the top.
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He shares his experiences competing at the highest levels, his approach to pushing
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boundaries, and how he continues to inspire others through his story.
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Get ready for an inspiring conversation with a true champion, both on and off the bike.
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Let's dive in with Jaco Van Gass. Welcome to the podcast.
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Thank you so much for having me. It's a true pleasure to be on here.
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I'm so happy we made the time. Thank you so much.
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And if you can take us back to your time in the British Army and how that shaped who you are today.
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I remember we met at Migration Race in Kenya, and I was in such awe of you.
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I didn't even know who you were until I Googled your name, and I saw you're
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such a big champion, but you're so humble, so approachable, and so nice.
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I also got your book and it would be great if you could share a little bit with the listeners.
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All the way back into your time in the British Army yeah sure no thank you yeah
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well I was South African born grew up here all my life,
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And I left school, I did a little bit of part-time studying,
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and we had a very small family business.
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And I worked a few years for my dad, but I just had this craving of,
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I wanted more, and I wanted to do something totally different.
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And I craved independence as well.
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And I was like, it's going to take me so long to kind of get into my own flat
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and move out of the house. And I was just like, I want everything now.
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And anyway, a long story short, I've always had passion and interest into the army.
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And my sister at that time lived in the UK.
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And she said, well, there's quite a few South Africans joining the army.
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Why don't you look at that as an option? And because South Africa is part of
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the Commonwealth, that enables us to join.
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We do a few more background checks and security checks, but anyone from the
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Commonwealth can join the British military.
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So I just thought you know what that's what
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I wanted to do when I was growing up on
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the farm on my grandparents farm I've always loved the outdoors I
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loved field craft camping shooting rifles
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and stuff like that so it it almost comes natural to us to be in the military
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and yeah so I sold everything I had I had a pickup truck and I had a back then
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it was called a hi-fi and it was It was basically a CD player.
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And a few little bits like that. I sold everything I had. And I took the money,
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bought a plane ticket to the UK.
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And it was a Saturday. I landed just like late June.
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I landed a beautiful summer Saturday in the UK. And the Monday morning,
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I was in the careers office signing the first paperwork.
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And as they say, then kind of went through the system and went through my basic training.
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Up in, I think it was Gatry Garrison, up in the north.
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And this was my first real experience of the British winter.
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So I'm freshly out of South Africa, South African winter, and then suddenly
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I'm experiencing temperatures as low as five or six degrees.
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And in the morning we have to go for a run and you're only allowed to wear a
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t-shirt and a PT shorts and trainers.
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And I was freezing and I was like, oh my God, what did I sign up for?
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But I managed to get through it. I would not make it.
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It was such a big culture shock. And I remember even also the accents.
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My corporal that was training me was from Scotland and I could not understand a word he was saying.
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So he would shout a command and
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then I'll be the only one standing there going, I don't know what to do.
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I don't know what he just said. And then I'll get extra a punishment training
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because I didn't do what he asked me to do.
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I was like, I got really fed in the end, to be honest. So that counted in my favor.
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But yes, I went through my training and then I went to my battalion.
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So I served with the parachute regiment in the British army.
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And I actually spent a few months in battalion.
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And the one day I was on training and a corporal
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came up to me saying right you have been
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selected you need to go go to
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the and go get your stuff you're going to afghan in
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two weeks time i was like oh wow so that was
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very quickly so that was my first tour to afghanistan in
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2008 and i loved it it was i was just a young
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guy a young private soldier and i just all this information
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and this new place i was just taking me and taking me in and learning
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and I loved every second of it so I spent six
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months there then I was six months back in the UK or
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about eight months and then I deployed back to Afghanistan again
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in 2009 so the first tour I
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did in 2008 was more of a I was there we
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did some operations we did some missions and stuff like that but we also the
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main role why we were there was to train some of the Afghanistan forces to give
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them a skill to train them and to make sure that they are to a capable ability
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to go and fight as well against the Taliban.
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So it was kind of a bit of a mixture. But the second tour in 2009 was a purely operational tour.
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So we were there to fight, to push the Taliban back, to gain ground,
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and yeah, to do whatever we needed to do.
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And again, five and a half months in, I loved every second of it,
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absolutely every bit of it.
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And then we had a near two weeks left before returning back to the UK.
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So we deployed on what was most likely one of our final missions.
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It was a very successful mission, a very successful operation,
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and heading back into the desert to where the helicopters were going to pick
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us up and fly us back to safety.
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We came across a Taliban stronghold, which we weren't even aware was in the
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area, and a big firefight broke out.
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And about 45 minutes into what's quite a severe firefight at this stage,
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two RPGs, rocket-propel grenades just fired from my left flank.
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The first came over our heads and exploded in the distance, and the second one
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was fired low and just bouncing and ricocheting off the ground.
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And I can just see in my night vision goggles this
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this red glow heading towards me and the
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sound of this rocket just getting louder and louder and i i
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just knew like this was going to be really close really close and i just reacted
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to it so i i turned my head away and i twisted my back to the oncoming rocket
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so that night i was attached i was helping out a sniper so i carried these what
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we call telescopic lathers.
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So telescopic ladders loads of people have them in the house as well
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or loads of tradesmen as well because they they fold
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up really small and you pull them out and we can climb onto a
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wall or onto a building and we attach
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a little backpack to it so we can put it on our backs when we
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when we you know running around and maneuvering around so luckily that was part
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of my job that night so i had i had these set of ladders on my back and as i
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turned my back towards this oncoming rocket The rocket made impact on my back,
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but partly the lattice as well.
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So the lattice took a big chunk or big brunt of the impact.
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And then the blast blew me about three or four meters away from where I was originally.
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There was a lot of dust, a lot of shrapnel everywhere, stuff is on fire.
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Very confusing situation. And about...
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Literally it must have been seconds and you
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realize that right some things are right and as
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i was trying to sit back up and hold my rifle in the
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correct firing position to return fire to the enemy i was just yeah my rifle
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just fell to the ground and then i looked and i realized that oh my gosh my
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left arm's gone so i then learned i laid that down and then i tried to apply
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self-help I tried to put on a tourniquet,
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but I was so shocked and kind of disorientated. I couldn't do it that tight enough.
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Very quickly, luckily, a friend of mine came crawling over.
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He helped me with the tourniquet, and then he radiated in for a medic.
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And then a medic came and then started saving, well, treated me.
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And he basically saved my life that night because I sustained quite a lot of
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injuries, which I didn't know until much later on, until in hospital.
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But I was losing a lot of blood very quickly. So, yeah, so they treated me and
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they pretty much saved my life.
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We luckily managed to get a helicopter in in about half an hour,
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40 minutes after I was injured.
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And again, also luckily, I was the only severely wounded guy that night.
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There was a few other guys that had small injuries, but I was the only one with
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like really bad injuries.
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And then we managed to get some helicopters in and they flew us out.
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And it's on that helicopter I just lost consciousness. I think in my heart, I knew we're safe now.
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That we're in a situation. Yes. And I was, I could go, I could let go.
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I was kind of, I could relax because on the ground, I was just like,
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just listen to the medic, do whatever he says, do whatever he wants,
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you know, just be very aware of him.
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And then once I could relax, I was like, oh, okay.
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And then, yeah, I was, yeah, I basically lost consciousness then.
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And then I woke up, I think six days later in, back in the UK.
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So, yeah. So, which was very confusing. very
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confusing yeah yeah i i
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cannot even imagine i think no one can fathom what
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it is to be in war being attacked
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and i mean you have amazing survival skills
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because i think most people just pass
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out at the moment but you still up and
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you know you and your friend were able to save your life thank goodness
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but also waking up in the uk
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probably still things were still surreal like
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it was a dream or something to wake up to be in
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the hospital in that situation without your arm and the other injuries you suffered
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exactly that because like you say my my last clear memory i remember actually
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being in a firefight and i remember i remember losing my arm i because i looked
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down and i saw my arm you know that memory was there so for me being in a hospital makes sense.
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I was just thinking, okay, maybe I'm in a hospital in Kabul,
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or maybe I'm in a hospital in Kandahar, or even Bastion. And.
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But I thought I was still in Afghanistan. And then seeing my friends and my
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family around me, I was like, no, no, no, no, no.
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I don't want them here. This, you know, these military camps,
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they get attacked every single day.
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They fire rockets, they fire mortars.
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Someone always tried their luck. So it's never really safe in these big military camps.
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And I didn't want them there. But then with my family and the doctors,
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they were like, no, you're back in Birmingham.
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You're in the UK. You're in Birmingham. You're in a hospital. It's all safe.
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And I remember they actually had to wheel my bed to a window so I can just look
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out the window and visibly go, okay, this is not Afghanistan.
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So my brain was like, okay, cool.
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We're in an okay place. But I didn't believe them. So because,
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like I say, it was just you bounce from one place to another and then suddenly
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there's a big gap in your memory and reality.
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So yeah, it was very strange. But yeah, once I saw that there's trees and there's
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other buildings and I can hear cars and see other people, I was like,
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okay, yes, that set my mind at ease.
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I can't imagine. I had a bike accident, doesn't compare. But I remember when
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I realized I lost my tooth, my front tooth, I started to cry.
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I mean, it doesn't compare. It wasn't anymore. I didn't lose a limb.
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So I can't not even compare how big this is. And how do you find the strength
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from your recovery journey to becoming.
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This elite athlete, I mean, you have broken so many world records, countless gold medals.
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What was that journey like?
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Yeah, I mean... Because it wasn't overnight. Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, it was a very interesting and a strange journey.
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But again, if you came into my room that evening,
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or even within the next six months
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or eight months of my rehabilitation and you
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say jacko one day you will you will walk
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again because even at that stage i had i sustained quite
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severe injuries to my to my left leg and there
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was still the possibility of potentially losing my
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left leg because i had infections and i've lost
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so much muscle and tissue and then if you
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say jacko one day you would walk again you would run again you would
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do a number of marathons and you'll ride your
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bike you go and climb mountains and you know
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all the stuff i've done i would say there's no
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way there's absolutely no way look at me
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there's i'm i've you know i couldn't even feed myself and i had you know catheter
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and i had colostomy and yeah it just everything seemed so far beyond being able
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to do this and to achieve everything i've done to this day but but i think the
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thing is i was just taking everything day by day.
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I had a quote that someone sent to me and it said, life is 10% what happens
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to you, but it's 90% how you respond to it.
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And I thought, wow, that's so powerful.
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And that's it. And I just thought my future, my life and everything that's still
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to come is solely depending on me about how I will respond to what happened to me now.
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And I just had to take it day by day. But every day, I just had to work towards
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getting a little bit better.
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And, you know, some days I had big jumps and other days very small.
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But I also, I always move towards bettering myself from the situation that I
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found myself in from, like I said, just, okay,
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the next thing I'm all, you know, I want to get rid of the colostomy back,
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or I want to move from a bed into a wheelchair.
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I want to go from a wheelchair to a zoomer frame. I want to go from a zoomer
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frame to fully walk solely on my own.
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And that was my goals. And I just, that's how I motivated myself.
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And like I said then the goals just started getting bigger and bigger and so okay well.
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If I can do that I can do the next thing but it was all day
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by day and like I say and then it ended up that
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I trekked to the North Pole and I
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attempted Everest and I climbed to you know
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North America South America all over the world all
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over Europe and then I was
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in the phase of leaving the army i actually came
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just came we just came back from attempting everest
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which we sadly didn't get to the top and it
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was summer 2012 and london was hosting
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the olympic paralympic games and i lived in
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london at the time and i went to see some of
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the games and i was so blown away by
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the atmosphere and the athletes that
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they were performing at such a high level
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and at that very same time I was going through
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the process of actually leaving the army so because of my injuries
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I couldn't have a full military career
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anymore so I had then had a lot
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of doubt of what I'm what do I want to do where am
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I going to go and I came back from the Paralympic Games I was
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like you know what I would I would love to be a Paralympian and that was my
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next goal and challenge so yeah so that's that's how I then got into actually
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it's a funny story I actually went and I trialed out for ParaTri because the
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next games will be in Rio in 2016.
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And that will be the first time ParaTri would be inaugurated or included into the games. Wow.
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And I thought, oh, I'll give that a go. And then I went for the trials and my swimming was so bad.
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I was swimming in circles and my run was not much greater.
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But my bike my bike was so i've always loved
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riding even as a young kid i always loved bikes and
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then my bike was just so much stronger that the
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tri coach went listen you got
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talent we can work with you but your bike's so much stronger maybe
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just ride bikes so i was like
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okay so i did that and then i went to brief cycling and
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did a trial day there and basically as i say the rest history i then got onto
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the team but actually like i said as well the aim was to go to 2016 to rio and
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i didn't make the team i didn't get to the team to i missed out but eventually
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we got there for tokyo and paris so so yeah.
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Yeah, and then you cleaned out. Yeah, I mean, well, it took so much work and
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dedication and sacrifice.
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It's good for people to listen to. It just doesn't happen overnight. Don't give up.
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You came out of a huge injury, super traumatizing event,
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and you had the strength, the courage to set small goals and not only walk but
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run, then be on a bike, and then you try for the team.
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You didn't get in four years later, you go to the Olympics.
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Yeah. And that's the thing. It's just, in my heart, that was the goal,
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you know, to go to a Paralympic Games. That was my aim. That was my goal.
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And I actually love the analogy because when I attempted Everest,
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you know, Everest is really hard, very tough, and it takes a long time to do.
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And you have to acclimatize to the higher altitudes. and you
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have to go from base camp to camp one and then that's very tough then you go
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back from camp one to base camp then you recover then the next time you do base
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camp to camp one it's a lot easier and then you go camp one to camp two and
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it's very hard you come back down and you you,
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constantly go up and down up and down up and down and eventually you reach the summit.
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So basically i said that day in the stands in 2012 watching the pandemic games
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i was like Like, right, my next Everest is to go to the Rio Parenthood Games.
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And I didn't get there. And, you know, that was maybe just a part of like,
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oh, I have to come back down.
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It's when you learn from struggle, you actually become stronger.
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And honestly, I was heartbroken because I sacrificed so much.
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But actually during that time, that's four years,
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you know i was also learning how to be an
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athlete so that was because you
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go from the military to being an athlete it's
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very similar and there's a lot of stuff that the military
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helps by being an athlete but also i i
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was almost like too much of an athlete i sacrificed too
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much i lived this very strict down
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narrow line you know life where friends you
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know i lost friendships i lost relationships i i
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was just so focused on this one thing and i was constantly burned out as well
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i didn't have a balance between recovery and and training i was just training
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training training training training and then when i didn't go i looked back
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on it and i was like wow i i didn't actually enjoy.
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Especially the last, I would say, the 12 months to 15 months leading up to the
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Rio Games, I really did not enjoy riding my bike. I didn't enjoy the process.
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So I learned a lot from that. So then I knew I need to find a balance.
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And then once I found a balance...
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I became an even better athlete. I became a happy athlete.
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So, yeah. And then they say a happy cyclist is a fast cyclist.
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So, but yeah, but it was all about finding a balance.
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And that took me a long time to find. Yeah.
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Yeah, I think a lot of people go through that, that we think that we need to
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give our all and train as hard as we can to be the fastest and the strongest.
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But truly, there are many pillars that go into the recipe.
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And the more I talk to people and to doctors and specialists in the field,
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it's really all those pillars and recovery is one of them and also being social
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is one of them. We are humans, not just athletes.
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We need interaction. We need to rest.
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And I love what you said. I just want to go back. I love the correlation you
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made with alpine climbing that you have to go up and down for acclimatization.
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Instead of saying it's a setback i'm acclimatizing
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yeah and it doesn't mean that it didn't hit
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you like you said you know of course you were impacted by it didn't feel good
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not to make the team but yeah took as an acclimatization and exactly it's you
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know it's when you lose a race or you get injured uh or you know you have illness
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or again you don't get selected to go and represent.
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You know whatever country you're representing because you
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train so hard but then that is a appointment is an
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element of acclimatizing learning getting stronger
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well you can look back at well okay well why
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did i lose that race was i technical enough maybe
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i don't have enough speed then you have you can go to
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move forward you can learn from it and go well i need to work on
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other areas to then be better or why do
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i not get selected for a race speak to
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the coach and go what is it that i'm lacking and then
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so yeah so those setbacks is actually very it's
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areas of growth you know that's a possible you can
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then eventually become a stronger better faster
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athlete so yeah absolutely and can you i mean i cannot imagine would love to
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hear from you what is the behind the scene look like of being in those big events
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and the preparation for such a high-level competition like the Paralympics?
24:24
Yeah, I mean, gosh, it's very intense, to be very honest, because,
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like you say, for four years, the Olympic and Paralympic Games for any athlete...
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Is the pinnacle of our sport so obviously we're
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not at a level of tour de france and much of
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the bigger races so for us as track cyclists or
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road cyclists we're in the lower categories you know
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and especially for para athletes i
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think all around the world for any sport you know we
24:55
we don't have the support systems
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that some of the able-bodied guys do we a lot of
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our competitions doesn't get televised so for
25:04
us this is once in a four once every four
25:07
years opportunity to showcase you know
25:10
how good we are how strong we
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are our sport you know and just show
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to the world that you know almost anything is possible and i
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think that's what i love about the parliament games because even i
25:22
as a injured or you know a
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guy with some form of disability even I
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sometimes go and look at you know you're in a Paralympic village
25:31
and you see so many amazing people.
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And how they carry on with life and how they adapted
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to life where I'm like wow that's even
25:40
inspiring to me but yeah it's
25:43
it's been amazing because we just looked into so many
25:47
things so over the course of actually three years
25:51
we tested stuff every single year
25:53
we have a almost like a skeleton kind of
25:56
training plan and then we're like right we're going
25:59
to do certain you know exercises over this
26:02
period of time and then we're going to focus on this you know a lot more gym
26:06
work and then about three years ago I started introducing hypoxic sprints into
26:13
my training as well closer to competitions so that was a very interesting added extra because.
26:21
They absolutely destroy you. So it's three weeks. What is that?
26:26
Three or four weeks of hypoxic experience. So basically, you go into an altitude
26:31
chamber and you do a very, very hard workout.
26:35
So basically, you're forcing the body. So instead of, they actually say hypoxic
26:40
experience is the poor man's altitude.
26:43
So uh so basically if you don't
26:46
have enough time or or the capacity to go
26:49
and live at altitude for long periods of time you do
26:53
high pocket experience so you go into an altitude chamber
26:56
and you do 30 seconds on 30
26:58
seconds off or 10 seconds on 15 seconds
27:02
recovery 10 seconds as hard as you can and it's a number of
27:05
so basically you're you're you're draining you're forcing
27:09
your body to kind to create red blood
27:12
cells yeah to kind of like you say just to to man
27:15
up and to kind of go force them to to create
27:18
red blood cells to then recover quicker quicker but
27:22
it has a huge effect on all your
27:25
other training because it absolutely depletes you of all your
27:28
because you then have to recover so then all your
27:31
other training sessions you are so tired
27:34
and you your power drops dramatically so
27:38
because it's not until you freshen up so you
27:41
go out of the altitude and you start going normal training
27:44
for a few weeks that all that kind of benefits come through but for the meantime
27:50
you feel so depleted it's i can't even explain and every year i forget how hard
27:56
it is i always forget just that
27:59
three four weeks it has such a big effect so then my time on the track.
28:05
I can't keep my splits and then obviously that mentally starts playing with
28:09
you as well you think I'm two weeks out from a world championships and I can't
28:13
keep you know an average split that I used to ride before and then like anything
28:18
you do your taper you freshen up,
28:21
And then you go, well, but we played around with that of how long we do hypoxic sprints, how far out.
28:27
And over the course of three years, like I say, we got it wrong the first time.
28:31
I actually got really good form about
28:35
two weeks later after our world championships. I was like, okay, right.
28:39
My legs feel amazing. But when I did the world championships,
28:42
I felt I was still too fatigued.
28:45
So then the year after that, we shifted everything to
28:48
the left and then we nearly got it right and in the
28:51
third year we actually went back to rio
28:54
for our world championships which was amazing because
28:56
obviously i didn't get the chance to go there for the paralympic
29:00
games and then i have the opportunity to ride that very same
29:03
track for the world championships in 2014
29:06
sorry 14 2024 this year
29:10
earlier this year and then i became i i i
29:13
won the pursuit world title so that was
29:16
like oh wow imagine if i could have gone back in 2016
29:20
if you know you always wondered but it was
29:22
just nice to kind of having gone to that track
29:25
in the same conditions in the same track that everyone else did and
29:28
then get a good result but then also that gave
29:31
me a lot of confidence going into this year's parry you know
29:33
parry games in paris that i'm the world
29:37
champion in an event that i want to do and we
29:39
got our kind of training spot on and then it's really just
29:42
like a copy paste and make sure that everything else is
29:45
in the right place but yeah they you know
29:48
then yeah you obviously look into
29:51
your diet you you know you
29:54
your social life takes a big step back.
29:57
You start traveling less you start getting paranoid
30:00
when people around you are ill or have
30:04
a cough you know you there's so
30:07
much that relies on just being absolutely top
30:10
form on the right day at the right moment so it's
30:13
actually quite stressful to be very honest and then
30:16
obviously the parallel game in itself is was just amazing
30:19
it was well organized but I also felt
30:22
like I just had this perfect 10 months
30:25
probably 10 months to a year of I just
30:29
had consistency everything fell into place I
30:32
just had this steady climb in my form and fitness everything
30:36
was great and I actually said to my wife just before we left for Paris I was
30:40
like I've never actually felt so well prepared and I think I feel I in my heart
30:46
I felt I stand a good chance and I said if someone beats me they are by far
30:51
the better rider you know and then you know kudos to them because.
30:54
I just feel in a good place and I feel you know I'm nervous and you know stressed
31:00
but But I've done what I can do.
31:03
And I think that, and, you know, to be honest, it seems it's,
31:06
you can't, you can't slack on anything.
31:10
It's your sole focus. And I think that's the most important thing is that if
31:16
you want to be the champion, if you want to be the best in the world,
31:20
it has to be your sole focus for quite a considerable amount of time, really.
31:26
And yeah, so I went into Paris feeling good.
31:31
And then seven days later, well, seven days before, the race actually got knocked off by a car.
31:37
And I went, yeah, we did a Ricky of the road and time trial course.
31:44
And I did three laps. I was very happy with it all.
31:47
And I was on the way to where the buses were parked, where they're going to
31:50
pick us up and this guy was in a static parking space and he didn't look and
31:55
he just pulled out right in front of me and i went flying over the bonnet.
32:00
Eventually in hospital when i called my wife i was like you
32:03
know when i said i had that perfect 10 month i was
32:06
like yeah it just came to an end very quickly but yeah
32:09
we were we were in a good we were luckily i had a i had some i had a bad cut
32:13
on my head a few injuries to my leg but we were still in a place where we could
32:19
we could write which was i could at least i could still compete and and yeah
32:22
so and we came away with with the gold medal still so so yeah it was okay.
32:29
Can't believe you got ran over by a car seven days before the yeah but that's
32:33
as well you know that's i you know that's testing and i think i i've had so
32:39
many ups and downs over the years and and like and it's literally as we said
32:42
you know it's what you learn from the is what you learn from the hard times
32:46
is what you learn from the bad times that,
32:49
you know sometimes you go i've been here before you
32:52
know i've had a setback before and this is
32:54
how this is the things i need to implement to move forward and that was literally
33:00
that moment i had so many ups and downs you know all over my life but since
33:06
being injured and then obviously being a professional cyclist you know you deal
33:10
with injuries and crashes and stuff like that all the time.
33:13
And I actually laid on that floor after the car hit me and I went flying over
33:19
the bonnet. I was actually.
33:21
I was actually calm for some very odd reason.
33:25
There was no anger in me because I knew in my heart that nothing is going to
33:31
change the situation that I'm finding myself in at that very moment.
33:35
We can't go back in time and I can't swerve out for the car or the car,
33:38
you know, for him just to actually look where he's going.
33:41
None of that's going to happen. So I just have to be present in this moment.
33:45
And I was unaware of any injuries at the moment at that time.
33:49
But we will go to hospital and what
33:52
will be will be i i knew in my heart that if i
33:55
race amazing and i will still give it
33:58
my all and if i can't race then for some odd
34:01
reason there's a reason that i shouldn't
34:04
be racing and yeah it was it was just
34:07
it was this on quite a
34:10
surreal experience and even when i called my
34:13
wife and say don't freak out but
34:16
i've been hit by a car and told the whole story she
34:19
was going oh my gosh oh my god in panic and she's like have you
34:22
hit your head really hard because you sound really calm about it you don't seem
34:27
nervous about it and i was like i have hit my head but yeah i was just fine
34:31
with it all and yes and i think that saved energy as well i that was the thing
34:35
i was just like i didn't want to leak energy out of.
34:41
A situation that I can't change. So the best way for me to heal and for me to
34:45
be in a better place for if I will eventually ride is to just stay calm and
34:50
take everything as it comes. So, yeah.
34:52
Yeah, you're so strong-minded. And I also believe in that too,
34:56
like something happens, one, if it's out of my control, it's not going to do
35:01
any good stressing about it.
35:04
Like you said, you take all your energy out of what you needed to put in,
35:08
which was the competition.
35:10
And also, So if it wasn't meant for you to be on the competition,
35:13
then that's what was the best outcome, I guess.
35:16
But you did go and compete and tell me how many gold medals.
35:21
Yeah. Because I know there were a bunch.
35:24
Yeah. So overall, we now have four Paralympic gold medals.
35:28
So two from Tokyo and two in Paris, which is amazing.
35:32
You know, I've even, even myself, even if we go back to Tokyo in 2020,
35:38
you know, just I went into that.
35:40
Paralympic Games to just to
35:43
win a medal if I win a bronze I would be the happiest guy
35:46
in the world and I came away
35:49
with two golds and a bronze and three world
35:52
records and I was just like okay that was just incredible I
35:56
don't know even how I did that mind-blowing what the only sad thing from Tokyo
36:03
was there was no crowds you know there was no family allowed due to COVID and
36:09
that was the one thing that drew me because I was inspired by London.
36:14
You know, the crowds, the athletes, it was the most amazing atmosphere ever
36:19
and I just knew that this was not the perfect Paralympic experience that I dreamed of.
36:25
You know, what was that? That was nearly eight years ago, you know,
36:28
from Tokyo backwards. So I knew I had to go again.
36:32
And when I won, everyone's like, okay, that's amazing.
36:36
But the bigger challenge... is can you retain those titles?
36:40
I was like, oh gosh, I never thought of that. So that was a big challenge.
36:44
So for me, it was like, I want to go to another games,
36:48
retain my titles, but also even if I can, I just want to go to another games
36:51
and have a full games experience and not be isolated and not have a COVID test
36:56
every morning and have friends and family there, even just to experience it.
37:01
Regardless of the results, I just wanted to be in a velodrome and look up and
37:06
I want to see my wife's face and I want to see my sister's face and I want to
37:09
see my best friend's face,
37:11
and so many other people and that for me would have been the perfect Paralympic
37:15
Games so coming away with two golds and two world records was again just the perfect game so I am.
37:24
Totally happy yes i guess
37:27
paris was good because of that you were able to
37:29
have all your family there and you won
37:32
gold again and you broke the world record again that's
37:35
it yeah so i broke my own world record yeah so finley
37:38
graham a teammate he broke my my previous
37:41
world record by a couple of hundreds of a second and then
37:44
i wrote just after him in the qualifiers and then i took
37:48
it back so i put another two seconds on top of it so so
37:51
yeah so yeah but that's exactly what happened in tokyo as
37:54
well but yeah so so exactly the same situation happened
37:57
in in paris and then the only
38:00
thing is like i said and then with the bronze medal it's a very confusing race
38:03
so i then also did the one kilometer time trial so four
38:07
laps as hard as you can but this is a factored event
38:10
so i compete against two other categories which is more
38:13
severely disabled than me so then this is where the
38:16
uci then give them almost a time bonus and
38:19
they worked the factoring out but the factoring was
38:22
very much against me so i even in that
38:25
event i broke the world record my own world record
38:28
again but i came forth so
38:31
it's i know it's very confusing for people they go how can you
38:34
break a world record and not even win a medal that's like
38:37
well sadly it's just how the factoring system
38:40
works and it showcased that they don't have
38:42
it quite right and hopefully the uci will.
38:45
Notice this and go we need to be more I
38:50
don't know we need to figure out something that's actually
38:53
more fair so so yeah yeah so it makes sense and then and then the day after
39:00
that I had the mixed team sprint so myself Kadina Cox amazing athlete Jodie
39:05
Cundey truly amazing athlete we had the team sprint and we won gold on that
39:10
as well so so yeah which was brilliant,
39:13
Congratulations. I mean, incredible, incredible achievements.
39:17
I'm in awe of you and your determination.
39:20
And I know for fun, you do some gravel. Yes. Love gravel. Right? Yeah.
39:28
Yeah, we met at the, like I said, the Migration Race in the Maesamara and you were there kicking ass.
39:35
What's one of your favorite places to ride gravel?
39:39
Because also you're from South Africa. South Africa is also breathtaking,
39:42
beautiful. Yeah, so that's the thing.
39:45
Gravel is growing in South Africa because Saraka is very mountain bike orientated.
39:50
We have amazing mountain biking over here.
39:54
And gravel is making a very big impact on races now.
40:00
And I would say Africa is my favorite continent.
40:04
So be that the Masai Mara, be that in South Africa, be that Namibia,
40:10
you know, there's so many unexplored kind of new countries to go and ride your
40:19
gravel bike, which is, and you've seen with migration,
40:25
when they mean we're going the back road, they mean we're going the back road.
40:29
You're literally riding through wildlife there's elephants there's zebras there's
40:36
giraffes there's everything and there's,
40:40
That for me is, you know, the true beauty of nature.
40:44
And I think that's why I love Africa so much.
40:48
So not just Kenya, not just South Africa, not just the other place.
40:50
But I think Africa in itself has so much to offer for cyclists and especially gravel.
40:56
And I can't wait to explore more on my gravel bike and to see future gravel
41:01
events entering Africa.
41:03
Yeah, I agree with you. Miguel and I have been to Kenya. And then we went to
41:09
the race around Rwanda, which is also beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Tanzania.
41:14
I did the Ironman, so different, not gravel, but I did the Ironman in South
41:18
Africa. Also so gorgeous, so gorgeous.
41:21
Yeah, it is a beautiful continent and there's so much to explore.
41:24
I would love to go back to the same places or explore new places.
41:29
Yeah. It's really incredible. and yeah
41:32
just going back when you said also that you also get inspired
41:35
in your own event seeing other people doing it yeah
41:39
it's super inspiring for me as well when i
41:41
see you know someone like you or i mean anyone
41:44
obviously so many stories are inspiring but sometimes you
41:47
know in ironman too you see someone that
41:50
it's an amputee or it's 80
41:53
years old and then they are finishing you
41:56
know a full Ironman or there are any type
41:59
of cycling competition it's it's really a motivation
42:03
like oh my gosh I need to do it as well
42:06
yeah that's the thing I think this the world is there's so many amazing people
42:13
you know in the world and everyone kind of have their own boundaries and their
42:20
own kind of I always like say when I do the keynote speaking and the presentations.
42:26
My challenge to everyone is, and it's, you know, what's your Everest?
42:30
What is the one, what's that pinnacle? What's that one thing you want to go and achieve?
42:35
And again, know that it's not going to be easy, and it's going to be hard,
42:39
and it's going to be setbacks.
42:41
But as you said, you need to acclimatize, and there's a system,
42:43
and as you follow the system.
42:46
You know, you can achieve absolutely anything you set your mind to.
42:49
And I know my challenges is usually quite big and quite, you know, out there.
42:55
But, you know, for other people, a challenge might be, you know,
42:59
like you say, to run a 5k, you know, that is a very big challenge for a lot of people.
43:05
And there's a system that they have to put in place and they have to train very hard.
43:09
And for other people, it's, you know, ultra marathons, or it's, like you say, Ironman.
43:15
And, you know everyone has them all their own kind of challenges and things
43:20
that they find hard but with the support with people behind you and family members
43:26
and know that you're not alone.
43:27
You can achieve absolutely anything and and i think that's
43:31
what the world shows sometimes like you say people 80 years
43:34
old running ironman you know in my
43:37
head i'm thinking when i'm 80 that's probably
43:40
the last thing i want to do i probably won't be able to even run or walk
43:43
by that stage but deep people do and because exactly
43:47
they are so you know they like i'll show the world that an
43:50
80 year old can do this and he's showing
43:53
me exactly he's proving me wrong because i think no way
43:56
can people do that i i think in my mind i won't be able to do that when i'm
44:00
80 but they show you that you can at any age at any stage of your life you can
44:04
do absolutely anything so it's amazing amazing absolutely absolutely and you
44:10
can start small you know when someone comes to me is like, oh my God,
44:12
I would love to do that, but I can't.
44:14
I'm like, you think I started doing ultra cycling? No.
44:18
I started walking around the block. Then I was walking 5K, running 5K.
44:23
Then I started doing the tiny little races, then a tiny little triathlon until
44:29
Ironman and then ultra cycling. And I still struggle, obviously.
44:34
It's just for fun, mental health, but it also didn't happen overnight.
44:38
No, no, no, no. Exactly. It doesn't.
44:41
And you are a big inspiration now for many. How do you take that responsibility?
44:50
Yeah, like you say, I actually see it as a privilege as well.
44:54
And it also comes with an element of responsibility.
44:59
But I'm quite pleased to be in a situation like that because I think if by my
45:07
actions and almost just by living my life to the full,
45:11
that I can inspire someone, as we mentioned just now, you know,
45:16
even if they can see what I do or read what I do or hear what I do and have
45:21
accomplished and achieved,
45:22
purely by just living my life and it helps them to overcome their challenge,
45:27
be that even, you know, there's a lot of people that they're scared to go to the gym.
45:33
They have a phobia of walking into a gym on their own or like I say,
45:38
to go and walk 3K or do a park run.
45:41
And if I can play the smallest step or have the smallest impact possible for
45:49
them to just go, I've seen what Jaco's done, maybe I can do it as well.
45:54
And it's just that one step forward towards doing something and being active,
45:59
then yeah, that's amazing.
46:01
And like I say, it's actually quite a privilege to potentially have an impact
46:06
in someone's life for the better, for their well-being, be that physically or be that mentally.
46:12
Then, yeah, it's a true great honor, to be honest.
46:15
That's beautiful. And are you involved in any causes or initiatives that you
46:22
would like to share with our listeners? Maybe some people also would like to get involved.
46:26
Yes, to a degree. I think for me as well, it's just, I think it's just the importance
46:32
of health and well-being.
46:37
And I've always said.
46:41
If you're physically fit, you will be mentally fit as well. It follows on.
46:47
And again, like you say, you don't have to go and climb Everest or run a marathon.
46:53
But even just moving the body, I think it's so important.
46:57
And we've seen that with some of my involvement in Invictus Games.
47:02
Which is a truly remarkable setup.
47:06
Up because we've seen so many guys
47:09
that had no purpose and had
47:12
no drive and had no reason almost to
47:15
wake up in the morning and then you tell them well you
47:19
are now going to be a member of the invictus games
47:22
and we want you to run the 100 meters and
47:25
to be part of the sitting volleyball team it gives
47:29
them a purpose and suddenly they go right
47:32
but i want to be as best as
47:35
i possibly can for the 100 meters or i want to
47:38
be that sitting volleyball player that can smash the
47:41
hardest so they then go to
47:44
the gym and they take a walk around the block and
47:47
suddenly you can see even their mental fitness
47:51
and mental health improves and then
47:54
they go and partake in something amazing and they feel that they're
47:58
worthwhile again and they have a purpose in life and that they
48:01
can serve the country again be that on the
48:04
play of you know sport on the sporting field
48:07
but not in the military but they have
48:10
a purpose once more i think that's so important and
48:12
that's so amazing so i always encourage people to to stay active and to do something
48:17
to do something with friends as well you don't have to do a lot of things on
48:20
your own i think it's a community it's amazing it's so strong so so yeah i would
48:25
always encourage people to you know just to to move the body Yeah, I agree.
48:31
It's so important. And I love what you said about purpose.
48:34
I was talking here on the podcast with this pro mountain biker,
48:38
Sona Looney, and she talks a lot about purpose. And it's super interesting,
48:42
you know, to what are you doing?
48:46
Is it for yourself? Is it for a bigger cause? Just to check in as well and keep going.
48:53
And it's super important, I agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's so important.
48:58
And what does a typical day look like for you now?
49:02
Well, a typical day... On-season, off-season.
49:07
So on-season, obviously, we just came from the power of the game.
49:10
So I would say that was pretty hectic. So that was always, you know,
49:14
yeah, just again, get as much sleep as possible.
49:18
You know, recovery is such an important phase of your training and to be a professional athlete.
49:24
So as much as you can, I'll wake up. First thing is coffee, coffee and breakfast,
49:29
then get some training out.
49:31
I always feel like I train better in the morning.
49:34
Sometimes life is a little bit busy and I find myself writing emails, whatever it might be.
49:40
And then to try and motivate myself to
49:43
go out in the afternoon it's so hard it's so hard
49:46
so yeah so i tend to try and get my training out in
49:49
the morning but the ball up to the penalty games we had a lot of double days
49:53
because again i had such a busy schedule and also a lot of the events is qualifying
49:59
and finals so it was it was all about actually teaching the body to perform
50:04
twice a day you know and multiple days so.
50:09
Also, yeah, to recover, but to be as fit as you can.
50:12
So I actually had a long schedule of having double days, riding in the morning,
50:19
gym in the afternoon, or riding in the morning, track in the afternoon,
50:22
or double track day, or, you know, whatever it might be.
50:26
But it was constantly like, how can, like, teaching the body to perform,
50:30
recover, perform again.
50:32
So yes, that will be it. Do you know, sorry, do you know in the competition when you go?
50:37
Because i was watching the games and i
50:41
kept on thinking oh my god the athletes they're there
50:43
waiting must be nerve-wracking to
50:47
deal with anticipation of when they're gonna go and
50:50
just be waiting there but also obviously also
50:53
the physical as well like you gotta be warmed up
50:56
and yeah yeah how does that work yes i'm
50:59
also a morning person so for me having to you know if i had to race
51:02
at 8 p.m yeah i don't know
51:05
yeah so that's exactly like you say it's
51:08
it's quite a hard one so we will know the schedule as
51:11
in when you'll be riding what days quite far in advance but like you say the
51:16
the more finer detail of the timing um doesn't get actually published till much
51:23
closer to the games i would say only like a week two weeks before when we actually get a finalized,
51:29
because even the tickets that family members buy,
51:32
you get a morning session and an afternoon session.
51:35
They don't even tell you that, you know, again, you don't buy a ticket for 10
51:39
o'clock for Jacko's race.
51:41
You buy a morning session and you buy an afternoon session.
51:45
So then it's all day session, basically.
51:48
So the tickets kind of vary. So it's not until, yeah, quite later on,
51:52
till quite closer to the games that they would finalize the schedule.
51:57
And then you, that's only a rough guess because then you have a schedule,
52:02
but then it depends on how many athletes have entered and how many athletes.
52:06
You know, each nation has brought.
52:08
So, and then depending on the disability as well. So, you know,
52:11
something like the tandems, they have really big bikes, there's two people.
52:14
So they take a little bit longer to set up and then to kind of get off the track
52:19
because they go so fast that they, for them to actually slow down,
52:23
they take a few extra laps.
52:24
So tandem events are always longer so
52:28
it's actually not until the evening before
52:32
that you'll again it's a guest time but
52:35
it's a it's a much closer one so i would go my
52:38
coach would go okay you're in the first heat of you
52:41
know the second session so that's roughly nine minutes
52:45
past 10 considering we
52:48
run on time you know so then there could be a crash
52:51
it could be a delay you know so
52:54
yeah so it's you have to so what i do i
52:57
tend to just go two hours before of my roughly
53:00
scheduled time and then i have a
53:03
system of when i get dressed when i eat when
53:06
i drink when do i start my warm-up and then
53:08
for if there is for some reason a delay i can
53:11
just keep jumping back onto the turbo and kind of
53:14
turn those legs around we also have like heated pants as well that kind of keeps
53:19
the muscles warm and stuff like that but yeah it's you have to have quite a
53:23
little bit of flexibility as well on the day as you know within the Paralympic
53:27
Games so yeah it's yeah you just got to almost stay calm as much as you possibly can.
53:33
Wow that that's nerve-wracking i remember my triathlon days
53:37
just waiting for my wave to start it was such
53:40
a build up and and then
53:43
you have to just go and swim as fast as you can and your heart is already my
53:47
heart at least was already racing at the so many beeps for a minute so yeah
53:52
and then like you said you see all these other races before you so as you warm
53:55
up you see other guys compete maybe even some teammates you know doing well doing bad,
54:01
you always constantly as well you they come off and you're like what's the track
54:05
like is it fast is it fast you know what does it feel like how's the corners
54:09
you always try to gather information.
54:12
Of of what it's like before you go up
54:15
so they're like oh yeah it runs very smooth stick to
54:17
the black line or you come out of this corner there's a
54:20
bit of a you know a wind from a door that's maybe open
54:23
somewhere and that kind of it pushes you
54:26
off the track to make sure that you kind of react to that so yeah
54:29
you always gather as much information as possible before you
54:31
go up with teammates but like you say there is a nervous anticipation
54:35
as well when you're just sitting there warming up and
54:38
you see all these races going on and there's world records
54:40
getting broken there's people you know all over
54:43
the place and emotions is everywhere some
54:46
people are crying some people are happy the crowd
54:50
was incredible it was absolutely the
54:52
french crowd was oh they whenever a
54:56
french rider stepped onto the track they shouted
54:59
the rooftop out of that velodrome and it
55:02
was it was just incredible like i said but it's actually quite quite
55:05
tiring because like i say you're there's so many senses and stuff happening
55:09
that you kind of just almost have to try and keep yourself to yourself and like
55:13
you say have music in and kind of be in your own bubble because otherwise i
55:17
think it's very easy to kind of be distracted but so yeah yeah i bet yeah it
55:22
It takes a lot of mental preparation.
55:23
And I guess with time, your experience now have done this a few times.
55:28
I guess you know yourself, your body, and the routine you want to have during those games. Yeah.
55:35
But just watching for me was always nerve-wracking. It is.
55:41
And what's next for you in cycling and beyond?
55:45
Yeah, so it's one of those times and areas where you do go and you question, like, what is next?
55:52
And, you know, again, like, when you have such a clear goal and the focus for,
55:57
you know, for the Paralympic Games for a year, two years out,
56:01
and everything is driven to that, suddenly you're like, oh, what do we do next?
56:05
But you know i have such a big love and passion for gravel
56:08
that you know that's one thing i want to slowly and
56:11
again you know i do road racing
56:14
but i'm i'm more focused on it on the track cycling stuff
56:17
but i would love to kind of break into the longer endurance
56:20
events and yeah so basically next
56:23
year we've got some some really good events i've
56:26
got time for the trucker so which
56:29
is great so we'll see you guys in Girona again we'll come
56:32
and say hi I've got a place for Unbound as
56:35
well and also for yeah Unbound
56:39
and also Badlands as well so Badlands is actually the
56:42
one I look forward to the most I'm not sure if
56:45
this Abled Rider has ever partaken or finished
56:48
it there might be a little bit of research should be done there but again it's
56:52
not I'm not doing it because that but it's just that's been i've been fascinated
56:57
by it so so yeah and then beyond in 26 like i said i want to kind of start even
57:03
longer and bigger stuff than that but as you know you need to.
57:07
You need to build a body up to it you need to kind of break into
57:11
that you need to push the body to limits and learn
57:14
you know what's right what's wrong kit equipment
57:18
bike setup so it's a whole new world
57:21
for me to kind of go into that and explore that and
57:24
see how we can actually potentially perform in
57:27
those arenas so so yeah how exciting
57:30
i will be super happy to cheer
57:34
you on on all those races i done that
57:36
lens but not the race i did the route last
57:39
year with lael wilcox she had a rally with
57:42
about i think we're about 70 of us just women
57:46
and anyone who identifies as a woman and it
57:49
it's a challenging course to say the least
57:52
and the logistics there i think is harder than the
57:55
course yeah finding food and water that's
57:59
it you have a good time for a
58:02
treat yeah but like you say it's it's something so
58:05
different and something so challenging for me and that's
58:08
why it's actually also so attractive as well to say you know can i
58:11
do something like that how will i react to that you know
58:14
the first one or two days is fine but it's once when you have little sleep like
58:18
you say looking for food all the time water rationing it you know it's yeah
58:23
looking after your equipment yeah i've got a big learning curve to to you know
58:27
that's coming but you know it's exciting so so we look forward to that.
58:32
I think you do really well. You have amazing survival skills, so you'll be good at it.
58:36
I kind of bluff my way through it as well. Like you said, it's just survival.
58:40
I'm just like, I'll just plot on and survive through it.
58:43
Ultra is really about survival and adaptability. So I think whoever has that
58:50
and the threshold for pain, you're in a good sweet spot. Brilliant.
58:58
I just have now some fun rapid fire questions.
59:02
Yeah favorite cheat meal every cheat meal i would say burger especially five
59:08
guys and then if you guys know five guys and stuff wow yeah i absolutely love
59:12
five guys yeah so that's my favorite cheat meal when when we when we get them
59:16
in nice nice sunrise or sunset ride,
59:21
sunrise love a sunrise yeah i'll rather get up early see that it actually wakes
59:26
you up as well but it's the most stunning view yeah love a sunrise i agree sunrise
59:31
just gives such a boost of energy yeah definitely gravel or a track oh gravel every time yeah.
59:42
One piece of cycling gear you can't live without one piece of cycling gear i would say,
59:50
oh gosh that's a hard one because obviously there's so many it
59:54
must be shami cream yeah you i can't i can't it's
59:57
a good choice yeah it's good i just think if you're gonna go anywhere
1:00:00
anywhere fast or long that you need to be comfy true true favorite pump up song
1:00:07
before a race oh lenny kravitz are you gonna go my way i love that song it gets
1:00:13
me it gets me i love lenny i love yeah he's such a good cool guy he's a he's
1:00:18
an amazing artist as well so
1:00:19
yeah he that song really gets me gets me going
1:00:22
cool and a cough
1:00:25
stop would be mid-ride or straight through after the ride i mean both is probably
1:00:33
the best answer but i would say for this i would say mid-ride lover lover coffee
1:00:38
stop mid-ride and if the coffee stops longer than the ride itself that's even
1:00:43
better that's a that's a good coffee,
1:00:47
i love that and most inspiring person you have ever met oh goodness me since
1:00:54
you're inspiring so many who is inspiring you i mean that's such a hard question
1:00:58
i i've i've been so fortunate to have met so many people in my life i think gosh.
1:01:07
Cavendish comes out in my head thinking about it because I think he's just gone through so much.
1:01:14
And I relate with a lot of it as well. I've read many of his books.
1:01:18
And again, for him, just his comebacks all the time, you know,
1:01:23
and he's open and honest.
1:01:24
And he's such a straight down the line guy where, you know, he says,
1:01:28
you know, my mental health is bad, my physical health is bad.
1:01:31
And then he just pulls himself together and,
1:01:35
you know, his team just trusts in him and he goes right i need to do this for
1:01:39
you and you know he he's amazing i think he's an amazing guy amazing athlete
1:01:42
he wears his hands on his sleeves so yeah i would say carvis must be up there
1:01:46
and i've i've met him many times and yeah he's a nice guy i think he's he must be up there.
1:01:52
Yeah i met him once when cycling wasn't
1:01:55
that big in dubai i lived there i think it was 2014 and
1:01:58
he was there for the uae tour but it was
1:02:01
like nobody was there so it was cool that i could
1:02:04
meet him and yeah i've been a big fan and
1:02:07
actually my favorite part of the
1:02:09
tour de france this last tour de france was him winning his
1:02:13
35th stage yeah i was just jumping up
1:02:16
and down so so so happy for him yeah and the year before that when he was winning
1:02:22
multiple stages and i remember i remember the day so clear we were constantly
1:02:27
me and my wife were like following it avidly and when the news break Like I was some way,
1:02:34
I must've been on a training ride myself or I did something and the news broke
1:02:40
saying he crashed and he broke his collarbone.
1:02:43
And I remember the whole of the world went, because that was meant to be his
1:02:47
last year. That was his contract ended.
1:02:50
And then Astana went, we will give him one more year. We will get this record.
1:02:54
Because everyone was like, you have to come back. You have to come back.
1:02:57
Yeah. Which is just incredible. It's incredible. Yeah.
1:03:01
Yeah. Yeah. I'm so happy he did come back.
1:03:04
Anyways, Jaco, it's been so lovely to talk to you. You're such an inspiration.
1:03:10
I'm sure there's going to be so much more coming from you to inspire.
1:03:14
And I look forward to seeing you here in Girona for the Traca.
1:03:18
Yeah, I can't wait. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure to
1:03:21
share my story with you and a few little insights into my life.
1:03:25
But thank you for having me and for listening to me.
1:03:28
And yeah, I look forward. Let's grab a coffee when we're in Girona.
1:03:32
Sounds great. Enjoy South Africa. Will do. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye.
1:03:39
And that's all for today's episode. I want to thank the listeners for tuning in.
1:03:44
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1:03:53
Music.