Parapan Am Games top Canadian medallist says normalcy, adventure drives love for cycling

Alexandre Hayward only started cycling during the pandemic, and now, he's a multi-medal Parapan American Games winner.

The Quispamsis cyclist walked away with a hefty haul — two gold, a silver and a bronze — the most medals for a Canadian athlete at the Games.

Before COVID-19, Hayward was involved in wheelchair basketball, where he captained the national junior team and played for New Brunswick at the Canada Winter Games. 

But he found that the pandemic made it increasingly difficult to get into a gym and keep up with his basketball fitness.

So in came cycling. He started it as a way to stay fit, but it just kind of "snowballed."

"Having had a spinal cord injury in 2012, I struggled a little bit to get to do sports with my friends and kind of feel like I didn't need some kind of adaptation," said Hayward, who is also a 2023 University of New Brunswick engineering graduate.

"Cycling was probably the first sport that I did where I could just join a group and fit in and if my injury never came up, it didn't matter. So I got a little bit hooked on that feeling."

According to the Canadian Paralympic Committee's website, Hayward broke his neck in 2012 when he was 16 during a hockey game. He was considered a candidate for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League that year, the site says.

It goes on to say that Hayward can use his arms and legs, but all four of his limbs are impaired.

The normalcy of cycling was something that appealed to Hayward.

"No matter how much you recover from having a big injury, you always feel a little bit like you stick out or aren't quite like everyone else. And I think being able to attend cycling events and fit in completely is really special to me."

The Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, finished