Just two short months ago, 18-year-old Washingtonian Elouan Gardon had never raced a track cycling event before and he wasn't part of the Team USA paracycling team either. Yet today, Gardon can call himself a Paralympic medalist, having won bronze in the men’s 4,000-meter individual pursuit C5 event at the Paris Paralympics over the weekend. In doing so, he gave Team USA Paracycling its first medal of the 2024 Paralympics.
Gardon competes in the C5 paracycling category; C1-C5 categories are defined as being for athletes who may have one or more disabilities such as cerebral palsy, competing with a prosthesis or limited movement of the upper or lower limbs.
Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Gardon enjoys all the things the great outdoors have to offer, including hiking, road and gravel cycling and downhill mountain biking. He's been competing against able-bodied athletes his whole life, and has found success especially in road cycling, where he competes as part of Fount Cycling, an elite men’s and women’s cycling team. Racing in the Cat 1/2 field, he won the WSBA State Championship TT in mid-July 2024 by more than a minute.
It wasn’t until Gardon’s now-Team USA teammate Bryan Larsen came across Gardon’s Instagram and race results that Gardon was noticed by Team USA paracycling coaches.
Larsen forwarded Gardon’s information to Team USA Paracycling coach Sarah Hammer-Kroening, and she took immediate interest in the young talent.
"Bryan was the person who sent me an Instagram and said, 'Hey, this guy looks like he’s eligible and he’s a beast,'" Hammer-Kroening said via USA Today. "'You should send him a message.'"
Hammer-Kroening did just that, and Gardon attended a select national track camp in June where he impressed coaching staff with his quick learning ability on the track.
Despite his lack of experience in paracycling, Gardon punched his ticket to Paris in early July at the PossAbilities U.S. Paralympics Cycling Time Trial in Loma Linda, California.
Fast forward to the Paris Paralympics and his speedy learning ability translated to securing a bronze medal for Gardon after he narrowly missed out on the gold medal race in the men’s 4,000-meter individual pursuit C5.
In the bronze medal race, Gardon secured the win by six seconds over his next competitor, Austria’s Franz-Josef Lasser, despite initially falling just over a half-second behind Lasser in the opening 1,000 meters.
"It feels pretty surreal," Gardon said in a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee news release. "I am so incredibly happy, and happy to get the first medal for para-cycling in the Paralympic Games. I can’t wait to continue."
Of teammate Larsen, Gardon said:
"He’s been a great mentor," Gardon said via USA Today. "[I]t's truly incredible how much he’s done for me to be here today."
If Gardon wants to continue with track cycling, Hammer-Kroening thinks he has tremendous potential.
"Any time you have a new rider (Gardon) come into the team, especially someone who is so young, obviously they’re very impressionable and you want them to be around the right people," Hammer-Kroening said via USA Today, "He understands that to surround himself with people who have more knowledge. That is beyond his years for a lot of young people. If he wants to, he has a huge future ahead."
Gardon missed out on the medals in the C5 individual time trial on September 4—he finished seventh—but he's scheduled to race the men's road race C4-C5 on September 6. Find out how to follow the action here.
