My Story
My name is Brandon Lyons. I am a para-cyclist residing in Colorado Springs, CO, training full time with the USA Paralympic Cycling team. I am a relatively new athlete to Team USA, as I joined the Paralympic Cycling program in May 2017. As you will learn from my story, I did not always have Olympic or Paralympic aspirations as a young athlete. I didn’t find sport, sport found me.
I was born and raised in Central Pennsylvania. Growing up, I was your typical student athlete. I competed in multiple sports in high school including football, basketball, and lacrosse. Excelling in and out of the classroom was important to me as I had aspirations of being successful in business upon graduation.
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Hard work and determination were instilled in me early as a child. Goal setting was a common practice ever since I was young. When I turned 15 years old, I secured my first job so I could purchase my first car. With the help of my parents and with the money I made working at a supermarket, I was able to achieve that goal with purchasing my first car at the age of 16. My next goal was to get accepted into my dream school, Penn State University. Being from Pennsylvania, there are really only two choices, Penn State or Pittsburgh. Not only did I want to get accepted into Penn State, I wanted to pay my way through college. Working through my four years at Penn State, I was able to pay my way through earning a degree.
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I am a graduate of Penn State University, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain & Information Systems Management in 2012. Following graduation from Penn State, I accepted a full-time offer with Big 4 accounting firm, Ernst & Young (EY). Today, I am still a proud employee of EY. I have had many roles within the firm varying from consultant, workforce management, and now resource management within their Advisory Services practice. My professional career was off to a great start; learning how to be a successful consultant, completing numerous client engagements across a variety of industries, and even being recognized as the Supply Chain Rookie of the Year in my first year with the firm. As my professional and personal lives were aligning, everything changed within seconds.
On May 24, 2014, while at the beach with friends and co-workers, I sustained a spinal cord injury from diving into shallow water and as a result became paralyzed instantly from the chest down. I shattered my T5 and T6 vertebrae, leaving me a complete ASIA A paraplegic. Immediately upon impact, I knew the severity of what had happened. I was instantly airlifted to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center for spinal stabilization surgery. I will never forget those three words I told my mom from the helicopter..."I am paralyzed." Upon arriving for surgery, the fight for my life began with a unique twist. The emergency helicopter that was to take me to the shock trauma center had insufficient amounts of fuel. Due to refueling, we arrived to the emergency room behind schedule, therefore could not enter surgery until the next morning. Eight hours, two metal rods, and eight screws later, I returned from surgery to family and friends by my side.
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Just as I never will forget telling my mom I was paralyzed, I will never forget the words the doctor told me when I first saw her following surgery. When I asked her what my diagnosis was, she boldly told me that due to injury to my spinal cord, I had less than 1% of walking again. Life in a wheelchair would be my new normal. I immediately thought, she did not tell me I had a 0% chance. Just as I was a determined and resourceful person before my injury, I would hold onto that 1% and have a miraculous recovery.
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Relearning how to navigate through this new life meant relearning all of the daily acts of living: bathing, changing, feeding, bodily functions, etc. Through intensive rehabilitation on the inpatient unit, I was able to build up enough strength to return home within one month following surgery. Arriving at home, I would continue with full time rehabilitation in hope of a full recovery. In search of regaining my mobility, I made the decision to look at unconventional methods to aid recovery. I took part in a groundbreaking clinical trial at the University of California San Diego in July 2015. I would be one of four people in the world to have stem cells transplanted directly into the spinal cord in hopes of connecting the nervous system below my injury level. Seeing this clinical trial was the first of its kind, the medical staff did not know what to expect in human trials. To promote a successful recovery, I took another risk in relocating to San Diego to be close to the clinical trial while attending a state of the art rehab facility in Project Walk. With the help of my employer, EY, I was able to relocate to the west coast in search of finding my step again.
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For the next two years, I would attend 20 hours per week of exercise based rehabilitation while working full time as a resource manager at EY. Unfortunately, I was not seeing the results I wanted in my recovery and had to make a difficult decision as I could not financially sustain this investment into my recovery. I withdrew from Project Walk and began rehabilitating at home and in the gym. One piece of equipment I started using for cardiovascular improvement was a handcycle. I first received a handcycle upon leaving the inpatient unit in Baltimore, MD, but it stayed in Pennsylvania at my mom's house while I was focusing on rehabilitation in San Diego, CA. It wasn't until I was home for the Thanksgiving holiday in 2016 that I decided to bring the handcycle back to the west coast with me. For the next month I would ride the bike every day, up and down the coast, for hours on end. After each ride, I began falling in love with the sport more and more. As I noticed my riding skills beginning to improve, I continued setting new goals for myself on the bike. That next goal would seem impossible to some, but I knew the type of person and athlete I was. I saw a advertisement from the USA Paralympic Cycling team in search of new athletes to join their Residence Program. The Residence Program is to house athletes in the top 10% of their sport at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center (OTC) with the potential to medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games. They were in search of one additional athlete to fill a vacancy. With nothing to lose, I applied. To my surprise, I received an invitation for a personal two week tryout with USA Paralympic Cycling coaches at the OTC in March 2017. Now that I had my shot, I was confident I would be leaving the tryout with an invitation to join the program, and that's exactly what I did. I left the OTC as the newest member of the US Paralympic Cycling Residence Program as of May 24, 2017. Ironically enough, this is three years to the date of my spinal cord injury. Fate?
Today, I am training full time with the US Paralympic Cycling team in preparation for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. As a resident athlete, I am a Paralympic hopeful for Tokyo 2020. I currently train 6 days per week on the bike, roughly 20 hours/week, along with 3 days per week in the gym with a strength and conditioning coach. In addition to work on the bike and in the gym, I spend on average 14 hours per week on recovery and injury prevention so I can bring my best self to training every day. Competitively, I have made large strides since joining the team in 2017. With the help of USA Paralympic Cycling coaches and staff, APEX coaching, EY, my sponsors/partners, and my loving family, I am positioned well to achieve my goal of bringing back gold in 2020.
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