Neil Fachie on trampolining, parenthood and going for more gold

For some elite athletes, recovery can take the form of a massage or even the dreaded ice bath.

Paralympic cycling champion Neil Fachie has found a new technique - a three-hour trampolining session with his one-year-old son Fraser.

It certainly is not conventional, but combining parenthood with top-level sport rarely is. Fachie, who will compete at his fifth Paralympic Games - and fourth in cycling after debuting in athletics in Beijing, has the added challenge that his wife Lora is also a Paralympian, and will compete alongside him in Paris.

With the couple trying to fit parenting duties in alongside training, it has made for some innovations in their daily life.

Neil Fachie said: “Between the two of us, trying to train and childcare being as expensive as it is, we can’t afford to have him in nursery five days a week.

“We’ve got a nice system where he’s in a few times where we can come and train at the velodrome and then other days we are having to tag team essentially. Someone is on the bike where the other one does parent duty and then we swap over. It works pretty well.

“The thing I’ve noticed most is trying to recover when a very determined little man expects you to be jumping on a trampoline for three hours, it’s quite hard work.

“But equally, that has perhaps made me fitter than I have ever been because I’ve never spent so much time on a trampoline. It’s worth the peace and quiet to do it. It’s different but I enjoy it as well.”

Fraser, who was born in October 2022, will head to Paris to support his parents, who between them have won four Paralympic gold medals, with two apiece.

Since his most recent gold in the tandem B kilo alongside guide Matt Rotherham, Neil Fachie has won three successive world titles, beating fellow Paralympics GB cyclist James Ball on each occasion.

The rivalry at the top end of the British scene has been mirrored on the global stage, and Fachie says that it is no coincidence as they prepare to face off in both the kilo and the 1000m time trial.

“It’s the reason we are both doing well internationally,” added Fachie, one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.

“We train together most days and any day you come in and are not really up for it, if you see James smashing it in the gym, you think I’m going to have to go hard again.

“No other nation on the male side has that luxury of having two world class athletes pushing each other. I think that is why we are doing so well.

“Since Tokyo, every event we have done, I’ve been lucky to win all the kilos but never by more than a tenth of a second, it’s been stupidly close. It’s essentially the flip of a coin.

“He’s aware of that and is obviously very hungry, I know that. I’ll happily keep him that way if I can. It’s all friendly until race day when we’re very much in our zone and want to go out and do the business against each other.”