Handcycling across America
Ironman World Champion. Ultraman World Champion. USAT Paratriathlete of the Year. These are but a few of the titles, distinctions and honors held by Washington native and paratriathlete André Kajlich.
“It took two years and four attempts, but I’ve realized the dream,” Kajlich writes on his website. “Finally, I qualified — and just received the official invite — to compete in Race Across America as the first ever solo hand-cyclist!
After coming up short on several qualifying attempts, I am so happy to have stuck with this goal.”
Kajlich recently added another distinction — being the first hand-cyclist to qualify for the Race Across America, a grueling 3,000-mile test to endurance that began June 16 in Oceanside, California; crawls over three mountain ranges, crosses four of the country’s longest rivers and ends in Annapolis, Maryland.
Mid-Tuesday morning, Kajlich and his chase team passed through Nevada with little fanfare. They stopped briefly in Woods’ parking lot before taking US 54 east towards El Dorado Springs. By mid-afternoon Thursday, he was approaching Columbus, Ohio, having completed 2378 miles.
Kajlich lost both legs in 2003 in an incident involving a train in Prague, Czech Republic.
His first foray into endurance sports was in 2010 and by 2012, he was USA’s Paratriathlete of the year. He has since competed in ultra events on three continents.
“If I’m honest, it’s been difficult to go through so many grueling miles and still fail each time,” Kajlich wrote about the qualifier races. “For one, that should be easy relative to RAAM. It also made me rethink the purpose of all this and wonder if efforts aren’t better spent elsewhere. I still don’t know with certainty but I can say that sticking it out feels good and I’ve learned invaluable lessons and had priceless experiences along the way. Quitting my first attempt was one of the best things to happen for me as an athlete. I’ve always learned the hard way — so why should this be any different?”