9 Since 1998, AMP has helped more than 180 NZers pursue their passion through the AMP scholarships. They had the courage to start. They dared to dream. Hi, I'm Lou James. In 2014, an AMP scholarship gave me the courage to pursue my dream helping people all over the world through cancer rehabilitation. 24-year-old Byron Raubenheimer's dream is to represent NZ at the Para-Cycling World Champs in Italy. With an AMP scholarship and his go-hard attitude, he's unstoppable. ROCK MUSIC To be a champion, I think your will to win just has to outweigh your will to sit on the couch. I love cycling, so that's what drives me. It's pretty easy to get up and train when you love what you're doing. I love the idea of potentially being the fastest in the world. I'm probably a bit too competitive for my own good. I was born with paraxial fibular hemimelia, which is an absence of the fibula. I was born with three toes on my right foot, and my right leg was about 4 inches shorter than my left. I was stifled when I was younger, so I couldn't run as fast as everyone else cos I had a massive limp. Couldn't do quite what everyone else could do. My parents tried really hard to fix it when I was younger, but when I was 12 I just opted to have it amputated. As soon as I amputated it, it was like being reborn. I started mountain biking, rock climbing, snowboarding. It just levelled the playing field for me and everyone else, I guess. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the decisions I've made in the past and my upbringing in general, so, yeah, I'm pretty happy with how it's all turned out. I really hope to qualify for the world championships and ultimately make it to my first Paralympic Games. SEWING MACHINE HUMS Byron's always been a self-driven person. Even as a little boy, if he couldn't do things, he would be trying again. Every time he fell off his bike, he'd be back on again. And maybe a tear here or two and say, 'Oh dear. Need to try again.' And also as parents, we would always say, 'We know you can do it. Get up and go.' I think they probably knew from day one that I was going to have to have quite a hard shell to be able to get up and get going and live the life they wanted for me. He gives everything a go. He's resilient. He just gets up and goes in the morning. He doesn't hang around if he's got pain in his leg. He's up, he's training, he's going for it. And he's got this dream that he's going to just be one of the winners at the Paralympics. OK, you ready to get your butt whipped? What, with your 200m drive? Yeah. (CHUCKLES) I saw him arrive on this Earth, and I saw a sudden note of concern on some of the doctors' faces. And I watched them talking to each other, and I wasn't really sure what was going on. And eventually they came out and said to me, 'He's just missing a couple of toes.' And my first thought, 'Well, nothing I can do about it. Get on with it.' Oh, shot. There we go. So, these are the X-rays of Byron's first limb-lengthening operation. You can see there, the tibia had been surgically broken. After about two weeks, you start to turn the bolts, so that you can start pulling the bone apart. A very challenging operation, because it's just 1mm a day that you're actually moving the bone. The muscles have to accommodate the pull and the stretch as well. So we ended up getting 8cm of growth. At 12 years old I was at school doing a fitness assessment, and I pulled out really early cos I was lazy. And my teacher came up to me and asked if everything was all right, and I lied to him, saying that my foot was sore, my leg was sore, 'I don't want to keep running.' And he was, 'All right,' and walked off. And I just sat there and watched everyone else doing this fitness assessment, trying as hard as they could, knowing that I'd pulled out just because I was too tired to do it and I'd used my leg as an excuse. And I didn't really like that in myself, that I'd started to do that, so I went home that afternoon and told my parents, 'I think it's time to cut my losses and move forward.' Cos I just wanted to be as active and able as everyone else in my class. I got home from work one day and he said, 'Dad, I want them to cut this off.' It was his choice. And he's never looked back since. It's formed the character that he is. And since he's had that amputation and he's grown from a tiny little boy to a 6'5�" giant, he's definitely flourished and blossomed ever since he had that. Cos now he doesn't have to worry about anything. He just gets on and does it. Some people could say I was dealt a dud hand or a pretty average hand, but, um,... yeah, kinda grew into a pretty good deal. Being told just after he was born that he probably wouldn't walk, uh, to what he's achieved now, hell, very proud. COUNTRY-STYLE GUITAR MUSIC About time. Kerry Charlesworth, she's my better half. Uh, we've been together for just over a year now. Met through sport. She's a competitive pole vaulter as well. Up, up, up, up, up. She's absolutely lovely, the perfect person for me. She's super supportive, super loving, super caring. Just super everything. Yeah, she's great motivation to get out and train. What drives Byron to be an athlete is... partly what he's gone through with his leg. So before he had his leg amputated, he never realised his potential to be an athlete. And I feel like once he had his leg amputated, that's when he realised his potential. And having that difference in himself really drives him to just make sure he does his best. GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES This is definitely my more dominant leg, my strongest leg, but this is the guy that's given me all the opportunity. UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC We are in Invercargill at Southland champs, where hopefully I'll be qualifying for world champs and ultimately make it to the Paralympic Games in Rio. He's quite a confident young fella, very motivated and driven, goal-orientated, dedicated to his training. One year ago was his first ever bike race, so to have come as far as he has in 12 months is pretty remarkable. He's definitely fast-tracked. He came on to the programme as a targeted athlete for Tokyo. He knows what's riding on it tonight ` potential selection for world champs in March. Everything's gone well leading into it, so hopefully, fingers crossed, he executes and does the business. It's in his court, really, now. He's gotta go out there and pedal his bike four laps of the track as fast as he can. TIMER COUNTS DOWN Yes! Come on. Up, up, up, up, up! FAST-PACED ROCK MUSIC Let's go, mate! Come on, let's go! Go, mate! Come on, wind it! Come on, mate! Keep it coming! Come on! Come on! Come on! All the way! INDISTINCT PA ANNOUNCEMENT So, he was trying to get a 1.10.4, which is the PNZ B standard for qualification, and he got a 1.11.0, so six-tenths off. A bit under what I was expecting. Um, but, yeah, my start felt pretty good, and then just the legs just kinda died in the last couple of minutes. (COUGHS) Just pretty knackered now, really. (SNIFFLES) Just missed out on the official time, so it's down to the selectors now to make their decision. SLOW ELECTRIC GUITAR RIFF 9 CELL PHONE ALARM CHIMES (YAWNS) Uh, typically the first person up in the morning. Pretty early starts to get breakfast in and my supplements and all the rest before heading out for a couple of hours' training, either on the bike or in the gym. So it can be anywhere between one to three hours on the bike, depending on what phase I'm in. For a strength phase, it'd generally be a shorter session, but endurance sessions can go from three to four hours. And then off to work for the evening. UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC This is my cycling prosthetic, developed for me by Andrew Hickson at Fibretech Solutions in Rotorua. When I first started cycling, asked him to develop something to allow me more power out of my pedal stroke, and he came to the party with this, which is just a prototype, but it's worked perfectly since the start. So just a standard socket that I'd normally wear with this carbon hoof and a standard cycling cleat attached to the end of it, which just clips straight into the bike pedal. And just allows a lot more power through the pedal stroke, cos I don't have that 90-degree angle that my prosthetic foot would normally have, which just gets lost under the pedal stroke when I'm cycling. This has definitely made a huge difference to my performance. Lining up in the gates at Southland champs, there was a pretty clear idea of what I had to do for selection for worlds. It was a personal best for myself, up by 0.3 of a second, which is quite a sizeable gain, and a NZ record by a second and a half, so pretty happy with that. Not quite the selection criteria that I was heading for. Got back, obviously pretty gutted, started working pretty hard straight away to try and make that criteria for nationals. But, yeah, got a call from the coaches saying that they were keen to take me on board for world champs, uh, based on my potential to grow. At the moment, I'm effectively living a double life. My job as a chef is purely paying for my job as a cyclist. The world champs is my first opportunity to show my coaches and the world, effectively, what I'm made of, like, where I stack up against everyone else in the world. It also opens up opportunities to become a carded athlete and potentially a funded athlete, which is pretty huge for me. It'll allow me to just focus everything in on my cycling rather than having to juggle employment and full-time training. If Byron gets top six at the worlds in Italy, that would be his front door to becoming a professional bike rider. They don't earn much; they're not gonna get rich. But, um, it'd be enough to allow him to commit to being a full-time bike rider. He can train as hard as he can` or as hard as he does. I mean, he puts everything into his training anyway. And not have to work, not have to stand on his feet for 10 hours a day just means his recovery won't be compromised. Worlds is predominantly about gaining experience, but I think in terms of expectations of my performance, I'm definitely gunning for a top eight, which will hopefully get me carded. And I think a top five would get me funded as well. It's great because, thanks to AMP, I don't have to worry about any of the travel costs for world champs and I can just focus purely on my riding. CHURCH BELLS RINGS EXPECTANT MUSIC CHURCH BELLS CONTINUE Yeah, Montichiari's a beautiful wee town, pretty laid-back and pretty good for the cycling as well. I could probably see myself living here. Road cycling was pretty much born in Europe, so I think it's just, like, a bred culture. Quite a nice wee velodrome here as well. Obviously, there's no place like home. But I've lived in some pretty diverse places before, like Wanaka and Wellington, so I reckon I can definitely fit myself in here. What have you got for five euro? Five euro for him? Did you carve it? Si. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, all right. See? Five euro. That's all I got. Grazie. I've been eating a lot of cannelloni, a lot of lasagne, a lot of spaghetti bolognese. Become quite a fan of the macchiato since I've been here, eh. The AMP scholarship definitely made this event accessible for me. There would have been no way I would've been able to get here without that support. It's definitely changed my career and my ability to make it to worlds. I don't think I would've been able to afford it financially. So, yeah, that support from them was incredible. The two-week build period towards world champs tomorrow has been pretty successful for me. A lot of personal bests since day one of training camp, which has been pretty great for my confidence going into tomorrow. I think I've been a bit of a talking point this last week. My coaches and mechanics and stuff have had quite a few people come and ask where I've come from and just sort of acknowledged my size, cos I'm probably the biggest guy` well, definitely the tallest guy. Hopefully I'll give everyone something to talk about in two or three years. But for now my main focus is experience and seeing where I stack up. COUNTRY-STYLE ROCK MUSIC It has been pretty exciting understanding the magnitude of this event. Like, this is world champs and this is where the best athletes come from around the world to show what they're made of and prove their worth for Rio. I've been absolutely fizzing being down at the track and seeing these familiar faces from watching coverage of London Paralympics and world champs from last year, like, you know, seeing familiar faces and keeping an eye out on some of the top guys and trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to match them. I'm walking around with a huge grin on my face, and everyone else seems pretty stern and pretty serious. Hopefully that'll work in my favour. It's a real privilege to be riding here, especially for the NZ team. It's the event that I've been working towards since I started cycling. I think just the magnitude of the event. This is the most prestigious event for track cycling, bar the Olympics. It's probably one of the biggest pinnacle events that you could race. It is a bit of a dream come true. I mean, it's taken a lot of hard work to get here, so I definitely feel like I've earned my place here and pretty excited to get out on the track. INDISTINCT PA ANNOUNCEMENT 9 COUNTRY-STYLE GUITAR MUSIC WHEEL RATTLES TIMER COUNTS DOWN, BEEPS We're at 2016 Para-Cycling World Champs in Montichiari, Italy. Yeah, he's a little bit nervous today. It's just the biggest race he's ever done on the bike, and it's just normal. I said that to him, you know, everyone will be nervous today. And even the current world champion's nervous. I've seen a tweet from him today, and he's shitting bricks as well. So it's just one of those things that he's gotta go through. Pre-race, you just wanna go through your mental processes, a bit of positive imagery to keep everything positive. Like, you know, just try and imagine your gate start going as cleanly as possible and then building through your first lap. It's just trying to focus on everything you can do to give yourself as good a run as possible. Full commitment in the first two laps. All right? Gotta set yourself up. All right? You set yourself up well in the first two laps, everything else is gonna flow. Nerves are good. For me, that feeling of anxiety, the butterflies in your stomach and all the rest, I think that is just kind of my body's way of telling me I'm ready to race. It's good to feel like that cos it means you care about what you're doing. I've always been quite conscious of that feeling, and I spoke to a psychologist and she said, "Well, maybe that's your body's way of telling you that you're ready to go." That's definitely a positive way to look at it, so it's what I've done since I've started cycling. Just keeping it nice and smooth. The third lap will flow, and then you'll start to feel it. But just keep it smooth. PA: Next rider to the line from Team NZ, Byron Raubenheimer from Kiwi Island. Let's check if he can emulate something like Emma Foy. Good? All right? Commit, all right? Full commitment. All set? Good. TIMER COUNTS DOWN TIMER BEEPS SPECTATORS YELL ENCOURAGEMENT Come on! Come on, let's go! Come on, mate. Smooth! That'd be his fastest 500 in a kilo. UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC Probably about halfway through the third lap, I could feel myself starting to slow down. Just the struggle with trying to stay on top of the gear. You can feel yourself just hit the wall. There's not really anything left to give, and it's just a case of trying to fight and keep your cadence up. Come on, mate! Come on, come on! And then fourth lap, there was not really a whole lot left, and I was just trying to make it to the finish line. Come on, mate! Drive! Drive! ELECTRIC GUITAR LICK Cool. Uh, it's a wee bit off his PB. He'll be probably annoyed with that, but couldn't have asked for any more, really. It's full commitment in the first two laps. He was one and a half seconds up on the next rider. He just, obviously, died towards the end. Pretty good, though. He's in third at the moment with nine to go, so it will be touch and go on top 10. I cannot doubt your commitment there, mate. That was awesome. That's the best kilo I've ever seen him ride, to be honest. Wasn't, timewise, where he's been in the past, but the first lap there was his PB for a standing lap in a kilo. Equalled his PB for max power. All I asked was for full commitment in the first two laps to set himself up for the next two, which he absolutely did. Gave him a buffer of I think it was nearly two seconds over the next fastest. And then he blew pretty spectacularly, but he had that two-second buffer which, if he hadn't have committed in the first lap, then I'd pick he probably would've rode a 12 or a 13. He's having a puke now, so that's good. You put everything that you have, like, on the line for a kilo. You know, going into it, that it's gonna hurt a lot. Um, and it doesn't generally hit you until after the race when you sit down and the lactate's trying to filter through your legs, and it's just` the legs are burning and you feel sick. Um, yeah, I ended up throwing up after my effort. Um, so I guess I couldn't have really given any more than I did. That was probably the hardest last lap I've ever ridden. I'm not too sure what happened. It just felt really heavy in the last lap. And there was no way I could really do anything to bring it back. Good boy. Well done. Sixth. That's gonna change, though, cos there's Jody Cundy and Metelka to come up. And they're two of the quickest in the world, so... I wouldn't mind top eight. That was my quickest first two laps that I've ever done, so, you know, in time, when that comes together with the last two laps, I'll be a bit more of a contender, I think. Yeah, I guess I just need a couple hundred more hours in my legs; I'll be able to hold on to it for the last lap. TWANGING ELECTRIC GUITAR Kind of just assumed that I was sitting at 11, so I left the track pretty disappointed that I'd missed out on the top 10 that I was going for. Got back to the hotel, had Stu walk through the door with a big smile on his face and the results sheet to show me that I'd got ninth and not 11th like I'd thought. Which is a pretty awesome feeling knowing that I achieved what I'd come all the way to worlds to do. Just to be able to make it to a world champs in two years was a pretty big deal for me, but to be able to get top 10 at world champs was just incredible. It's definitely improved my chances for Rio quite a lot. There's only, I think, a second or less between me and the top five, so I think my potential for success in Rio is pretty high as well, so I think they should be keen to send me. NEEDLE BUZZES Really makes me proud, the long journey we've been through as a family and how much effort we put in to ensuring that Byron is the kind of person that won't give up. And I think allowing your child to actually take risks and being there for them to gently pick up when they do fall and not being overprotective with a child with a birth defect is actually something that I've actually striven for, and I can actually see that now. So seeing Byron so successful, for me, is the most rewarding thing of all. I just want to see him succeed at whatever he tries. And I'm sure he will. Definitely. He can go the whole way. He can podium. Without a doubt. I love racing. I love the idea of potentially being the fastest in the world at some point. I'll have to give it a couple more years, but, yeah, I can't wait to stand on the top of the podium. It's official. Off to Rio. < Stoked? Pretty happy, yeah. Captions by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016