ライアン・ピニー – 兵役からパラリンピックの表彰台へ
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello everyone welcome back to another Fighter Heart podcast today we’re getting to sit down with Ryan what’s up man hey how you doing good to hear you um talk to you actually thanks for taking the time to do this yeah I love it i I love promoting um you know just life life in general yeah man and I’m sure you have a special story um so if you could if you could just give us a little brief rundown about who you are where you grew up um and then we’ll get into your fighter heart story sure my name’s Ryan Penny um I’m 44 years old right now but uh um I live young i live as young as I possibly can uh I don’t feel like my story is too unique you know I’m just trying to live life to its fullest and you know that saying uh living our best life well my best life is every second of the day because uh I love waking up in the morning uh I have a daughter I have a wife born and raised in Phoenix Arizona i think it’s the greatest uh city in the world and um I promote Arizona uh with my whole heart um I’m uh got paralyzed when I uh in 2012 so it’s been roughly 13 years almost now and uh got drawn to hand cycling become a became a hand cyclist and that’s my love that’s my passion besides my daughter and my wife um I uh that I can to uh reach my goals and you know show the world what’s possible um after something tragic yeah man it’s that’s we we hear stories like this like all the time so we love to get into it what um actually caused your you to become paralyzed so I was in the military for uh 14 years um I was deployed and in the Air Force and actually uh I got home and the weekend after I went I got home uh I went on a bicycle race uh up in Las Vegas Nevada went over the handlebars of my of my bike um uh you know landed on my back felt a pop and from that moment I knew something was was not okay um and so this was like one of those like pileups you see when you watch it on TV where everyone’s flipping over each other like is it like that it could have been honestly I remember being the only one on the ground at that point oh so you I knew uh I knew something popped in my back legs hit the ground to me today you know 13 years later my legs are still sitting up in the ground and I remember telling the uh the track official or the course official at the time I’m okay i felt like the wind got knocked out of me get came to you know I was like “Okay I’m okay just push my legs to the ground.” And he’s looking at me like I’m crazy and then finally I was like “I’ll just do it myself.” And I looked on the ground and went “Oh yeah something something ain’t right.” something and you couldn’t move them at all no not at all couldn’t feel them and you know it was just a It’s weird i had a revelation um once I got loaded up on the Gurnie um my EMT uh Christina Curtis me and her friends to this day um and I’m just remember her holding my hand and I just looked at at my EMT and said “You know what Christina i mean we’re not even out of the track yet and she’s not even loaded me into the ambulance.” I looked at her I said “You know what Christina praise God when you do win and you praise God when you lose.” And since that for that day from that day on it was just like you know what i can handle this i can handle this that I mean that’s literally as it happened you were already in the mind state to like that’s pretty incredible right there it’s it’s also crazy like 14 years in the military which everyone presumes obviously is a dangerous occupation and then you get home and that’s when you get hurt yeah it was head on a swivel out in the desert and then come home relaxed everything is okay go on a bike ride yeah you never know what’s going to happen in life call my wife and my wife thought they were joking and she rushed you know there immediately so they got So you never even blacked out or anything at any point you you remember everything i remember I remember everything yeah so you get to the hospital oh sorry yeah i just want to I do want to point out you know the the revelation really comes from from my upbringing you know like I I give a lot of credit to my mom and to my dad i grew up you know with divorced parents but I had no idea that divorce wasn’t normal um what wasn’t normal was they actually got along what wasn’t was that was that they were um still talking and uh okay with um um yeah just just sharing me I guess yeah like having a amicable separation like very amicable separation and I never I never knew that it wasn’t normal and I just felt the love from both sides so that allowed me to really have that revelation at that moment that you know everything is going to be okay and it just had to it was grounded from the foundational level of my mom and my dad that’s awesome did you do you kind of recall what you were thinking on the way to the hospital in the ambulance yeah I do actually i just remember life is going to be different you know and do you really thought like you’re not going to walk again from that point you know what no of course not you know I’m not going to say I didn’t think that i of course had that mentality of like I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to conquer the odds and you know what like I might not be able to move them now and you know once the do you know when the doctor said you know we we don’t know if you’re going to be able to walk again I remember thinking ah it’s that’s not me I’m going to be the you know the 00001% you know um so I always you know you always thought that um you’re going to be able to walk again even to this day I mean I think that there is groundbreaking technology i think the technology the treatment I think I truly believe it’s out there today we’re just waiting for it to be released to us so like a neural link kind of thing where uh they make your nerves work again a bridge a treatment uh something but again goes back to my speculation and everything comes everything is about money yeah no I know yeah then all the um like wheelchair companies and all the uh like uh crutches companies i’m sure there’s a bunch yeah yeah I hear you all right well we can’t get into conspiracies right now but maybe a different podcast um so you get to the hospital what do the doctors tell you are they pessimistic optimistic oh they’re very pessimistic you know I mean they’re kind of uh covering their butt a little bit but at the same time you know spinal cord injury you never know you don’t really know i mean the most crazy spinal cord injury that looks like somebody’s never going to walk again ends up walking and the just little nick that you know looks like you’re going to that the person’s going to be recoverable ends up being complete you know so it’s just just such a weird injury and um I love learning about it i love understanding it um but neuroscience in general I I I tell my wife all the time if if u reincarnation is is a thing I want to come back and you know become a neuroscientist because I think the neuroscience field is just fascinating from the brain all the way you know controls the entire body yeah um the doctors were absolutely pessimistic and um you know it really wasn’t about me walking again it was about me um recovering as best as you know recovering was going to be yeah what did recovery look like was it How long were you in the hospital for and then I obviously had physical therapy and stuff right i was in the hospital um so I got injured on a Sunday i was out of the hospital on a Friday five days later wow therapy and I was in inatient therapy for two weeks um you know the the the Air Force training the the military training really kicked in at that point because like I said you know once they released me into inpatient therapy I was like “Okay what do I need to do give me a checklist i need this checklist and I need to know exactly what I need to do to get out of here i don’t want to be here for months i want to be at home and so they gave me the checklist and uh I completed all the things in the checklist right away i remember going to the board and I I asked the the doctor at the time too i was like “Okay I want to be in the in the room i want to be in the room where the decisions you know take place.” And they were like “Uh request before.” And I went “Well this is me better than me so I want to be in the room.” And I remember the you know the head doctor or whatever going around all the specialties the OT the PT you know um and going “Okay did you sign off on this?” “Yeah I did.” “Did you sign off did you sign off?” “Okay well I guess you know do you think we should release him?” And I remember them going “No it’s too soon.” Like everything yeah can people heal quicker than you know others even if they saw the similar injury before I’m sure you know people heal quicker yeah and have a different um I was I was really encouraged again it goes back to my family you know I live in Phoenix uh my wife drove all the way to Vegas was was with me and I got to say we weren’t even married at the time yet we were she was enga we were engaged to be married um and uh she was by my side the entire time every minute of the day uh my mom was up there my dad was up there my brothers ended up you know speeding up to get there you know my uncles had uncles go with with up there um I was out of the uh a unit here in Arizona um and my unit the 161st shout out to them because they uh they all ended up going up there to Vegas and and you know that was the thing is I had a great great support staff i had a great support um cast to be able to um encourage me and get me out of there you know yeah that’s great man you’re lucky in that way um I want you know to try to pass that along to people because I understand that is that’s it’s a rare thing that’s not the case with everyone we talk to either like some people have no one exactly yeah no yeah um so you get out of the hospital five days later and uh you start PT right two you said two weeks outpatient inpatient two weeks impatient oh impatient okay um where does hand cycling come into the mix do you like meet someone that introduces you to it yeah uh so it was 2012 right the uh Olympics were going on at the time okay obviously the parolympics follow that uh my uncle um and my cousin actually came to me and said “Hey have you checked out you know the Parolympics?” Like we’d never watched or witnessed the Parolympics before and I remember my uncle and my cousin coming like “Ryan we you if anybody’s going to get into this something in this you know um you’re going to do it.” So I checked out basketball like I love basketball huge Phoenix Suns fan i love basketball just studied it i I went to school for um sports uh I’m sorry for um uh for sports management um to get in the front office of a basketball team and so I got into wheelchair basketball and totally different didn’t enjoy it um a guy from my unit uh here in Arizona um came to me he’s an avid cyclist i love mountain biking i love you know BMX i love you know cycling in general um but I’d never heard of hand cycling at all and um he actually got in contact with my my wife um we drove from California when I got for I’m sorry from from Las Vegas when I got out to San Diego i got out of inatient therapy to San Diego and she told me “Hey don’t ask any questions.” I’m like “Why are we going to San Diego we Phoenix.” And she’s like “Just don’t ask any questions.” I’m like “Okay.” We drove up to um Camp Pendleton the Marine Corps base there um we’re going through and I’m going “What are we base right?” We drive we get to this big old hanger and we get out and we’re waiting at this hanger and all of a sudden about a hundred cyclists come um come finishing a a ride at the at the Marine Corps base one of the cyclists gets off uh John Greenway he’s with a a foundation the the Free Will Foundation um and he starts making an announcement and he’s like “Hey you know what um here’s this here’s this uh uh airman that just got injured you know a lot of people at his unit really um put this together we are at the end of this ride we’re donating a hand cycle to to him and I went “Wait what ryan will you come up?” You know I’m like right there you had no idea well I didn’t i’m like me uh okay okay so I get get up there and they have this uh top end Force two an old Force two hand cycle brand new at the time and they have a chopper there right and they open this doors of this chopper and they bring it out and they had it hidden in this freaking helicopter like here you go this is your your your hand cycle you know there’s two conditions that you have to to do with it um one you know when you progress you know you need to give back and you know help other people get into hand cycling help other get into people get into um uh get a hand cycle and two um next year you’re doing this ride with us um on this hand cycle which is a 430 mile ride to San Diego in four days 430 miles holy crap i went “All right let’s do it.” That was a year later you said they said a year later so what you were like training for it at that from that point on probably trained for a year i didn’t have a choice i mean I went home got on the hand cycle right and um went around the block the first time and discovered I didn’t like it oh didn’t like it it was a different position my arms were all weak you know and I’m like “Oh this is not enjoyable.” But I made a commitment and you know again that’s where the military training in me that’s where the athlete kind of in me comes and a team comes into play where it’s like “Okay I made this commitment you know I got to go do it.” So one one you know trick around the the block turned into two turned into you know 15 minutes turned into an hour and I found that I actually loved it because it got me out of the chair you know and allowed me to get on the on the trails that I used to run or I used to to to do things without somebody by my side right and I I’m sure I hear it from people all the time that are similar to me you know it’s that sense of freedom finally you know like oh my gosh here I am out on the road and my wife’s finally not with me being my caregiver anymore for the first time yeah like you gain back your independence yeah yeah like that i had someone that uh swims and she said the same thing like when she’s out in the water it’s just her yeah cool and breathing in the fresh air and just h it was just me and it ended up being kind of like just my solace you know and just kind of like everything is going to be okay right that’s awesome did it become an everyday thing for you from that point on every single day every single day we ended up because we ended up going up mountains and stuff so I ended up doing the ride with him the next year for sure right wow on this force two thing was probably 150 pounds um but we fabricated a bar you know that came kind of up and they helped push me um up a lot of the mountains and everything we didn’t know about gear and we didn’t really even know about hand cycles at that point but I fell in love with it right and once the ride was over it was like okay well what now what’s next you know now what’s next now I wonder if I can compete with this thing you know so I started going online and seeing okay are there hand cycle races and I found out that there was a hand cycle race in Redlands California all right well what do I do how do I train so I started you know getting on Google again and hand cycle coaches you know and found out that there was a hand cycle coach again in California um messaged him got on the phone with him and got a coach right away and decided to start start training start figuring out what I need to do to start start competing um at the lowest level you know yeah how are So a few basic hand cycle questions for a novice what uh how what are the dimensions of the bike or like what does it look like i’ve never seen one yeah so um let’s see there’s a bunch of different dimensions of it so a force two you’re kind of like sitting with your legs out and sitting almost straight up in the in the air right and pedaling with this um then you start getting into the racing ones and that was the thing is like when I started getting into it I was asked my coach i was like “Okay can I can I race with this force too?” And he’s like “No you might want to get a you know a better one because everybody’s laying.” Um Oh they’re laying down basically and you just have your neck up yeah let’s see i got my my gym right here see if I can move the computer uh I don’t know if I can reach it i can’t reach it i’m like looking over but it’s not going to do anything behind me but actually um I could look one up real quick actually I’ll just do this right let’s do this this is uh this is one of them let me just do this real quick oh wow it’s three wheels yes it’s three wheels um so basically what they did was they figured out that every everything is the same as a normal bike except for the frame and the fork and they took a regular bike flipped it upside down oh when you were a kid and you would flip your bike upside down and kind of like ice cream man whatever but now the drive wheel is on the front you know same cranks as a normal normal bike except you know instead of you’re pedaling like this we’re pedaling with our arms together um and there’s there’s gears I guess gears yep we got I got 12 gears on my uh on the bike i mean you can set it up for 24 or you know um whatever uh but it is so once you get to a a certain level I mean it’s so high-tech the entire thing is mine mine anyway is completely carbon fiber um Oh so it’s so light it’s fair it’s very light i mean I get people telling me all the time who help me like put it in the car or whatever especially when I don’t know them and I’m out at a trail and I’m like “Hey could you mind help putting me helping me put this in the truck?” They lift it up and they’re like “Oh we thought this was gonna fly heavier than it is.” I’m like “Yeah that’s a good one.” So you know it’s it’s just a it was just a big long progression though from the original top end Force 2 I getting a Force R which is an aluminum one but an old one um to a Force RX and then finally I graduated to the uh the carbon bike which is which is totally carbon and now my wife she loves the sport keeps me active um but she doesn’t like it because it’s it’s it’s pretty expensive and I gotta upgrade every year oh yeah i’m sure new tech every year right yeah all right so wait if we were on a timeline 2013 I guess we’d be in right now right after that race um so I guess for the next three years basically you’re train are you training for the Olympics like are you trying to make it there yeah I was um so what is that yeah so for 2016 I I I had this delusional thought that 2016 you know I’m going to be a parolympian i ended up going to small local races you know one here in town in Phoenix going to California and I start kind of getting up there you know but they’re still top contenders right you know these guys are fast um and and then you know you go to your first international race i think that was in Italy and total different scene like you think you’re finally getting up there and you realize you’re you’re you’re not even close wow and so 2016 uh uh came around and I went to trials for that and you know your family kind of has that sense but I knew at trials I’m like yeah I’m not going to make it i knew who was gonna make it and still everybody kind of is cheering me on you know like “Oh we can’t wait to root you on in Rio.” And in the back of my mind I’m going “Well no one no one’s going to know better than you.” Yeah you know what the competition looks like so then the then the um next step was to uh focus on 2020 right and do everything in my power to get to to to Tokyo in 2020 um and I was ready i was prepared 2019 came around um I had made my first Team USA roster um yeah first first Team USA roster um and that was a quite a a different sense too because when you finally go from like an independent writer to a team USA writer man the your eyes are opened as to the advantages you get you know the the the coaches that are on there um the the staff just helping you put your bike together you know keep it clean telling you exactly where the turns are you know just just the support i mean you get done with a training ride and hair here’s your protein you know and it’s like you know so it’s it’s one of those where I am very much appreciated uh appreciative of them because I’m not the writer I am you know without my family but also without without the support of everybody on that on that team it’s like going from the college to the pros I would assume something like that maybe yeah I would I would say that you know you get a you definitely get um some added uh bonuses um not monetar not not not necessarily monetarily but you know I mean I you can call the the mechanic anytime and be like “Hey what are you thinking about this hey can you help me with with that?” You know and even to this day I I’ll FaceTime him every now and then like “I got a problem with the bike would you mind you know helping me out?” And so I’ll be on FaceTime with him and he’s like “Yeah you gotta do this.” Um so I was ready i uh I have a coach now i’ve been with my coach for 10 years now um and he actually lives in Germany um his name is Ralph and uh and so I he knew that I was ready for the the 2020 um Tokyo games um we were preparing for it at the start of 2020 obviously and then we all know what happened right and um that was a huge bummer but I kind of used it towards my training advantage you know because you didn’t need to to to go anywhere um there was going we didn’t know when the next race was going to be but we knew there was going to be a next race so I had to be prepared for whatever that next race was so I have a workout room right behind me i mean I put my bike on a trainer and didn’t go anywhere and just sat in that room every single day and um and trained and rode and rode and rode and I I learned to love riding so much and I love it to this day that I can sit in that room with no TV with no music um nothing and just ride for four five six hours you know because I spinning Um the other thing is too since we weren’t traveling we weren’t going anywhere my daughter had just been born in 2018 she was a year about a year and a half so I really got to spend some really good quality time with her um and my wife obviously um both of us we got to spend some really good quality time with her but above all that above all the enjoying riding the bike I wanted to show my daughter even from you know her being one to however long if you have a goal you have a dream you go after that dream like you want your next breath right and you there are no options there you know what I mean like I don’t I don’t set a set I don’t push snooze because I don’t have have an option to push news right because that alarm goes off it’s time for me to get up and get on that bike or you know do what I need to do to take care of myself um so that I’m prepared for whatever race um and you know what tokyo ended up happening anyway in 2021 right in the summer yep and you went obviously right how’d you do yeah I I did I did fine i did okay um I took fourth in the road race i think I took sixth or seventh in the time trial um and then we got third i got a bronze medal in the uh the team relay that year um the one of the best things about it though was that I was in the service for 14 years right and once I broke my back I didn’t get to put my uniform back on right mhm cool to go out there um in Tokyo and be able to to to wear a uniform for the United States of America yeah I was going to say it’s a different Team USA but your same thing still the same thing differently but you’re still representing and like it was it was being able to put that uniform on and um know that I wasn’t just doing it for myself i was doing it for for for my family and for my friends and most importantly my country you know very cool dude so um you come back you you’re decently satisfied I guess you could say with your performance yeah I was I was satisfied but you know um extremely motivated because three three years away yeah I know exactly they kept it the same timeline they didn’t say four years from now they kept it the same so you only had three years um before I move on though what what race do you run um not run but uh cycle what do you mean like how far how long is it how it So time trials there’s there’s um three events uh internationally there’s three events we have a time trial a road race and then we have a team relay um the time trial is anywhere between 15 to 25 kilometers depending on you know the location depending on the course um and then you’re you’re just it’s you against the clock right so you’re kind of going all out and trying to manage your your energy level throughout that 20 kilometers let’s say in Tokyo the road race is actually 80 kilometers which is 50 miles oh shoot it’s like two marathons yeah oh yeah yeah you’re racing against everybody and it doesn’t matter rain shine you know wind you’re you’re you’re racing you’re out there and there’s strategy there’s lots of strategy towards the road race and then you have a team relay and you’re a team of three uh hand cyclists um and you actually go individually so it’s kind of like you don’t pass a baton but you pass a line right and once you pass the line the next the next hand cyclist goes and that’s for three kilometers each lap and we do three laps each so nine we do nine laps but each of us does three and I mean that is just a blitz creek i mean you are going as hard as you possibly can you’re putting out more power than um than you should and you get done with that one lap and you’re going I got two more of those well three kilometers like a mile and a half right or something yeah it is and I mean it’s a sprint it’s a You’re going you’re sprinting for a mile and a half like how how and you’re going all out for a mile and a half your arms are on fire right at the end your chest yeah oh yeah and to be honest with you I would say the second lap is is the hardest the third lap you’re like “Okay this is it i can give all all of it for my my third one the second lap is you’re just like I got one more of these to go i’m I’m already burning i’m already out of out of breath and I got another one is it anything can you compare it to like when you’re in your house and going for like six miles do you Is it comparable or it’s just so different being out in the elements it’s It’s definitely different than being out in the elements but you know what you’re prepared and that’s the thing of having a coach i trust my coach i’ve been with him for so long he actually knows how I can handle things better than I know how I can handle things i mean I go into a race questioning you want me to do what you know even in my head I’m like okay but then you know I I have the confidence in him knowing you know me so well that you know it ends up working out well so it’s hard to to to compare it when you’re on um when you’re training at home but it might seem hard at the time but when you’re out there in the race you end up recovering so much quicker because you trained for it yeah i mean so in the military I’m sure you had to run a lot right oh yeah we had to run all the time so do you think your mind state is similar when you’re biking a long distance totally different totally different i hate it i hate running now you have fun oh yeah i was thinking like I don’t know maybe you zone out because if you don’t watch TV or listen to any music you could just go six miles like you must zone out i don’t know where you go you must go somewhere yeah i mean I’m not we’re not doing six miles on the when I train i’m not doing six miles i’m doing 60 miles 60 that’s awesome man no it’s truly incredible to be able to do this so um 2024 came right or no yeah 2024 yeah so during that three years in 2022 after Tokyo I was probably in the best shape of my life right um went to a race in uh in Germany just give you a a quick rundown went to a race in Germany wrecked and blew out my shoulder what like what happened he dislocated it what happened so the rotators the rotator cuff um the rotator cuffs attached to your humorous bone right here and what ended up happening is my rotator cuffs actually popped the bone off of itself so thankfully that was the best case scenario because they had to go back in put a plate in just to secure that that bone right but the rotator cuffs were never injured which is great because you don’t want to hurt you know soft tissue um took about a year to recover 2023 was a pretty frustrating year for me trying to come back from that injury um we had World Cup season uh which didn’t go well for me at all and then um at the end of 2023 um I raced uh at World Championships i got a World Championship bid in Scotland um and again this is where I had all the um confidence in my coach for some reason I went into that race just calm i don’t know why but I just went into it calm and my coach I remember never forget he told me right before the race he’s like “You’re going to be surprised you’re going to be surprised with your performance.” And I remember being out on the course going down the start ramp going out on the course and just enjoying it just loving being on that ride never felt like I was out of breath you know came back to the last five kilometers i think it was about a 20 kilometer uh time trial came back within the fast five kilometers and I remember thinking to myself like I’m fast today fast today and if anybody beats me today they were just better and that’s okay because I’m everything that I can and I feel fast today um and I crossed the line and I looked up and I was in first place at that point right but we had like 25 riders yet to go and the fastest riders always go towards the end right world champion always going last and so I got off my bike as quick as I could went to went to the to the finish line just to just to watch you know and nerves like crazy right and 10 guys left to go and I’m just watching i’m like “Oh my gosh I’m still at number one you know.” Um another guy the Dutch guy ends up coming and I see his time i’m like “Okay he’s going to be he’s going to be he’s sure crosses the line and sure enough now I’m in second place right?” But I’m like “Okay you know what we’re still podium there’s still podium.” And this has been a horrible year a horribly frustrating year like I’m just shocked to be in this spot right now yeah and the injury everything going into it yeah five guys to go three guys to go two guys to go and I’m like I’m gonna podium oh my gosh i’m gonna podium at a World Championships and um sure enough I ended up getting second place at World Championships wow a crappy year having a bad injury and um that was that was my best I I wouldn’t say best you know ranking result but that was just the best kind of like overcoming result I’ve ever I’ve ever had and ever experienced yeah huge boost of confidence going into I guess you had like six months till the Olympics right at that point or uh Yeah well we had about a year we had about Yeah nine months nine months to the to the to the games right yeah and then 2024 switches over again i’m in the best shape of my life um go out uh we do a race a rankings list uh race um for team USA because we’re going to go out to to to more trials go to World Cups um I ended up doing a really well ended up getting ranked number one here in the US um at that at that race in Texas come home this is uh middle of April it’s actually one year ago today um and break my femur oh god so this is a roller coaster man it’s been a roller coaster um so unfortunately because I broke my femur um I did everything that I possibly could to get back and be prepared for the games um I think that I was ready to go but I was definitely not at the level that I should have been at um I ended up not going to to Paris for the games um had some very very down moments you know those moments of like what am I what do I do like let’s just throw the bikes away like I’m done right and um those those moments of just sitting in this chair right here and and crying you know because Tokyo was great right um I got to go but my family didn’t get to go you know and that was the whole goal was to celebrate with them in Tokyo and obviously they didn’t get to go we had plans for Paris um and I felt like I let them down right um just sitting here right now I can feel those feelings come back you know I felt like I let my daughter down i felt like I let my my wife down right because we were supposed to be be going there as a family um and celebrating not just the commitment that I made but the commitment that they made not the sacrifices that I made but the sacrifices they’ve made because a lot of people don’t realize too that when you get to this level people think about the training that I’m doing right and the and the hours that I’m doing but you got to remember like they sacrifice holidays they sacrifice vacations they sacrifice time with me too and missing Paris was was was a there was a bit of depression in there you know i mean I don’t like to use that word i don’t use it I use it I I don’t use it lightly um I wasn’t full-blown by any means but it was one of those where I really really had to dig myself out of and go “Okay you know what if I want to be a good example and I truly love the bike I need to remember why I’m on the bike right and is it for that shiny metal is it for people to look at me and go you’re you’re the man you know or is it because you actually love the bike?” Two what does the bike make you right and three what example are you giving to your daughter right what do you mean and what does it make you i’ll tell you what I mean by that right so first off if I love the bike so much that I want to that that that uh I can sit in there without music without TV without any distractions and get back on the bike and prove it right back on the bike what I mean by what does the bike make you right being in a chair 24 hours a day right i want to be as normal as I possibly can and I think that’s what we’re all striving for right is just I just want to be the best dad and as normal of a dad as I possibly can right i want to be as normal and the best husband as I possibly can right and it’s not saying take the chair away it’s not saying like “Let me walk again.” But it’s saying like when I’m playing with my daughter I want to be able to lift her up and hold her you know high i want to be able to do the things that she’s not or she’s asking me as little as possible why aren’t you standing why aren’t you walking why aren’t you you know what what’s wrong you know I want her to see me as dad that’s it dad you know not dad in a wheelchair not you know handicapped dad so just that and honestly that’s the appreci appreciation I have for my sport you know is that it does give me the strength it does give me the confidence and it allows me to be to get out of that bike and go do whatever I need to do because I don’t know what I would be doing i’m sure there would be something else i’m sure I’d be able to to figure out something else but that’s my modality to being you know a dad a husband a friend you know um and then the third thing was And then the third thing was be an example to your daughter right like if they truly have no options and you’re not pushing snooze then you don’t have any options right now either like yeah you might have a busted leg like you might not be feeling the best but as long as it doesn’t hurt you anymore you know show her that nothing is going to stop you right and maybe you get a medal in 2025 maybe you make the team in 2025 but that’s not the important thing the important thing is showing her that you’ve overcome right and now her being six she can kind of see that and kind of understand a a lot more than she could at one right oh yeah she didn’t remember anything when she was one right so we already had our tickets for Paris we already had our Airbnb set for Paris right got that notification that I was not going to be on the roster and my wife uh asked me she goes “Should we just cancel everything?” And there’s there’s where I had to look at her and I’d said “No we’re not canceling anything we’re going like we’re supposed to go as a family doesn’t matter right like we thought we were going to go for the for the games but just because the games doesn’t happen doesn’t mean that we we we can’t go as a family right as a family and still making it making it a um a celebration right and because they’re they were a huge part they were a huge part in this entire journey i’m not here without them super cool man so I mean did you look at any did you watch the races at all while you were there or you just hung out with the family okay of course i you know I tried to I tried to be encouraging and and um reach out to to to my teammates that were out there um and um and I’ll be honest with you I watch the races still today because I’m competing you know I have I have 2025 aspirations i still got the got the uh the dream to to um got the dream to be world champion you know whether or not that happens is is in God’s hands but you know so I study man i studied I study my competitors so you got you got LA in three years at LA la and 28 yeah so that’s right right around the block from you that’s in our community that’s that’s in the southwest that’s our that’s in our neighborhood right now yeah you could get there so I didn’t um I I wanted to ask so how big of a role does your do your legs play in cycling because you broke your femur you know like it must play a role if they didn’t let you play I mean compete i mean it doesn’t play a role but I mean my my leg was the size of a watermelon oh it was ex Yeah it was massive i mean I uh I had to go into surgery and they put a they actually put a carbon fiber rod down my down my femur to put it back into place um it was bad and I mean it took months for just the swelling to to go down so I mean it affected uh because it it affected my cardiovascular um my respiratory um so I couldn’t like push power even though I had the the strength and the muscles in the arms I just couldn’t push the same the same power and my body was um was healing and recovering and utilizing that energy to heal the leg instead of recovering from a ride yeah so there was just no way you could have competed i did my best i mean I I got again this is I got out of the hospital they I had surgery they kept me overnight got out of the hospital or as I was getting released you know the doctor’s there and I as he goes okay you have any questions i’m like yeah when can I get on the bike he’s like you can get on the bike this afternoon if you wanted to i was like really i got on the phone with my race director i’m like hey just want to let you know I’m uh with Team USA race director i’m cleared at home right now that surgery was a success and he’s like “Oh that’s great you know go home take it easy.” I’m like “Yeah I’m going home and actually getting on the bike right now.” And he’s like “No you’re not.” I’m like “Sure.” Sure enough I was on the bike wasn’t long like 15 minutes very long hard by any means but I was like “I need to get back on the bike.” Yeah you kind of missed it right it was a few weeks at that point right oh yeah you’re what’s the term runner’s high you know i mean it’s it’s it’s a family member man my bike is a family member all right cool so what’s the plan at this point it’s just get try and get ready for for LA right yeah you know that’s the uh long-term four-year goal you know this quad um so we’re definitely getting ready for LA uh 2025 has started um you know we have races we have World Cup races um we I actually leave in two weeks um so I made the World Cup roster um I’m healthy i’m strong i’m you know I’m focused for every road that’s that’s down my path i’ve had uh really important conversations with my with my coach and said you know what i’m not picking and choosing races anymore it’s time to it’s time to go so you’re not saying no to anything you’re just going go for it you know and um so 2025 there’s there’s ambitious things in 2025 there’s ambitious things in 2026 you know 2027 and then obviously there’s the the big one in 2028 um lots of lots of competitors um along the way that are really strong really you know in in our country and um and around the world so you know still got to compete against them and and the other thing that we’re trying to focus on too aside from racing is growing the sport right um hand cycling is it’s not a very big sport in in our country and um right now I think we’re focused on on uh on trying to to grow the sport and get more hand cyclists out there from a grassroots level um so we’re we’re we are there’s a few of us uh right now trying to put together a a United States hand cyclinger series um starting in 2026 uh so that’s that’s a huge focus too is is really um bringing more people into the sport and and introducing them as well as uh getting uh getting more competitors that’s awesome man we’re looking forward to getting that going you said next year right 2026 nobody get hurt to become a handsy list but yeah can you do it if you’re if you don’t have any uh disabilities or anything yeah you know what i I I’m one of those where I think that you you can I mean I wish um there was an open class because what’s inclusivity right I mean just because we have parolympics and we have parolympic sports um I almost feel like we make them exclusive just you know you have to have an injury to play to play wheelchair basketball you have to have an injury to play have an injury to do a hand cycle why why um I actually got my brother uh into a hand cycle and um I actually put him on a uh a training plan and he took one of my old hand cycles put it in his garage and decided to to do some some hand cycle training and he got good he got fast and he like slimmed up and that’s what I was going to say it’s got to shred your upper body doing that it was great it was great you know so um you don’t have to I don’t think anybody has to i think I think it should be a very inclusive sport wheelchair basketball should be inclusive you know yeah you’re strapped into the chair that’s it as of now it’s not though like the Olympics won’t let you okay well it’s not an Olympic sport you know and um at this point you know you have your able-bodied cycling you know per UCI and then you have your parolympic cycling side so you have to get classified um so you have to have be classified with a with an impairment to be a parasyclist of any kind um so as of right now there’s no like open class i think it would be cool to have have an open class and doesn’t matter what your your disability is or your ability level is um I think it would be cool because then how cool would it be to be uh see hand cycling at an Olympic level um with everybody you know and it I think it’s pretty pretty exciting if anybody if nobody’s seen it you know um people should YouTube uh hand cycling and um the H3 class specifically it’s It’s I would say the equivalent of F1 racing you know but with your arms it’s the equivalent of Indie car racing it’s It’s pretty freaking cool yeah I could imagine that thing looks crazy the The picture you showed is insane looks like a I don’t know like a Ferrari or something it looks cool it’s a part of me i’ll be honest once I get into it like I it is it’s like putting on a skin suit or it’s like putting on clothes you know like I am in that bike you know how do you steer it’s all body no so the fork the the the cranks are attached to the the fork and you’re actually steering with your arm so Oh I’m pedaling i can turn at the same time you know so Oh wow yeah it’s it’s still with your arms yeah that’s crazy geez all right all right well we’re coming up towards the end here this has been a great freaking story though man um if you could if you had any advice you could give to maybe someone in a similar situation as you like you know they got in an accident they lost um use of their legs um or even like your younger self like what’s something you wish you told yourself when you were going through this that you wish you knew well if I told my if it was my younger self didn’t matter if I knew that I was going to get injured or not I would tell him all the time things are going to change right keep smiling keep smiling through it you know my grandpa used to tell me that all the time like hey how you doing i’d be like I’m okay like just okay all right i’m great you know he’s like keep smiling right through the dark times you got to smile right um I would tell everybody that first gets hurt right there’s a famous speech by Jim Valvano um yep and he says he does three things every day right he feels he he he feels his emotions feels his emotions allows him to feel it through to his tears you know it allows himself to cry he laughs every single day right and what was the last one the last one is like just he he he uh oh allows himself to to sit in silence and and and think about think think about you know his day and think about what’s going on and this is a man who was dying of cancer i mean I think he passed away like a week after this speech right and he was actually supposed to go on stage so I that was one of the first things I did um in my hospital bed was to the Jim Balano speech right and um uh that’s what I try to do every single day is is is cry is laugh you know and really spend time in thought um because that’s a full day right and the other thing is um asking for help is actually a strength right it took me to realize that um it’s okay to ask for help um and your loved ones want to help you loved ones want to help you you know And you know you’re not being strong by staying within yourself and staying reserved and not not grieving you know because you lost something right whatever it is whether it’s paralyzed whether you know you lost something so allow yourself to grieve allow yourself to grieve allow your family to grieve right that was that was a big win was allowing my my brother and allowing my you know my uncle my cousins my friends to grieve with me you know come in and be like man yeah we’re not going to be able to hike the same way that we were able to right we’re not going to be able to play basketball the same way we’re we’re not going to be able to do many things the same way we were able to do right but you don’t stop doing the things that you love right you just find a new way to do it awesome dude thank you so much man thanks for taking the time that was an hour it went by flew by crazy longwinded thank you so much man thank you absolutely i I thank you uh for uh reaching out to me always man always and we could do this again for sure reach out to me again i could I’ll I’ll share more later on awesome dude um everyone else thank you for listening to another Fighter Heart podcast we’ll see you again next week
After 14 years of service in the United States Air Force, Ryan Penny had seen the world. He had returned home from deployment safe and sound—ready to settle back into civilian life and enjoy time with his fiancée, family, and the Arizona sun.
Then, just one weekend later, everything changed.
During a routine cycling race in Las Vegas, Ryan went over the handlebars of his bike. He landed hard on his back. A sudden pop. His legs, still upright, wouldn’t move. “Just push my legs to the ground,” he told the course official, still catching his breath. But when he looked down, reality set in. He couldn’t move them at all.
That split-second accident left him paralyzed. And yet—before the ambulance even left the track, Ryan was already thinking about how to move forward. Holding the hand of his EMT, he said, “You praise God when you win, and you praise God when you lose.” It’s a mindset he credits to the solid foundation of love and strength from both his parents growing up—divorced, but united when it mattered most.
After five days in the hospital and two weeks of inpatient therapy, Ryan was already asking for checklists, pushing for progress, and requesting to be part of the decision-making room. He was determined to not just recover—but thrive.
That same year, as the Paralympics aired on TV, a spark lit inside him. He tried wheelchair basketball. Didn’t love it. Then, through a surprise organized by his wife and fellow Air Force members, Ryan was gifted a handcycle by the Free Wheel Foundation. The catch? He had to promise to use it to help others—and to complete a 430-mile ride from Santa Cruz to San Diego the following year.
At first, he hated the bike. It was heavy, awkward, and his arms were weak. But he kept pushing. One loop around the block turned into two. Then an hour. Then a love for the road, for the independence, and for the way it made him feel free again. “It was the first time I didn’t need anyone beside me. It was just me and the trail.”
He completed that 430-mile ride the following year. Then came the training. The small races. The losses. The international competitions. And in 2019, Ryan made the Team USA roster.
When the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics were delayed, Ryan didn’t complain. He trained harder. Every day. Alone in a room. No music. No distractions. Just him, the bike, and a commitment to show his young daughter what it means to chase your goals relentlessly.
In 2021, Ryan represented Team USA in Tokyo. He took 4th place in the road race, and won a bronze medal in the team relay—but most importantly, he got to wear a uniform for his country again.
“Putting on that Team USA jersey wasn’t just about me,” he said. “It was for my wife, my daughter, my friends, my country. I didn’t get to put my Air Force uniform back on—but this was the next best thing.”
Now preparing for the next Paralympic cycle, Ryan continues to train full-time, ride with purpose, and help others discover the freedom of adaptive cycling.
Because for Ryan, every day is a new opportunity to push forward—and show the world what’s possible when you refuse to quit.