Great Britain athlete and Bradford native Ella Curtis has been selected to represent the nation in the 2024 UEC European Road Cycling Championships in Belgium this weekend.
Ella, from Baildon, is one of four cyclists who will travel to the province of Limburg, in Belgium, to represent Team Special Olympics GB at the event, which brings together some of the leading cyclists from across Europe.
Within this, around 50 Special Olympics athletes from 12 European national programmes will compete at today’s event.
Special Olympics Great Britain is the UK’s largest provider of sports competition and training for children and adults with an intellectual disability and it provides coaching and competition opportunities in 27 sports across 98 accredited clubs.
Joining Curtis and the other three athletes are their volunteer cycling coaches from last year’s Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.
These include her dad Tim Curtis, who is head coach, and he said: “To participate in the same competition, and on the same course, as many of the world’s top cyclists is a fantastic opportunity for our athletes.
“It’s a further demonstration of how inclusive cycling is as a sport and we’re very grateful to our European Governing body, in the UEC, for the invitation to compete.
“Ella has been on such an incredible journey with Special Olympics GB and it’s fantastic that she can reunite with her teammates from Berlin and participate in the 5K Road Race against an international field.
“All four athletes achieved personal bests in their races in Berlin, so this opportunity will be a great indication of their progress and we’re very excited for all four of them.”
His daughter cycles every Saturday at Wyke Sports Village with the Summat Creative cycling club.
She won a gold medal and bronze medal last summer at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin on two wheels.
The achievement is even more remarkable for her, given that she won a bronze medal at the 2019 Special Olympics World Games, in Abu Dhabi, on a three-wheeled tricycle.
Curtis only taught herself to ride a bicycle during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
Soon after Curtis returns from Belgium, she will be joined by more than 50 other cyclists from across England, Scotland and Wales to compete in the Special Olympics National Cycling Competition at Wyke Sports Village, giving her a chance to show her talents on home soil.
A programme of 21 races will be spread across two days there for the biggest cycling event in the Special Olympics GB calendar on September 21/22.
Special Olympics Great Britain (GB), set up in 1978, is a non-profit charity which provides year-round sports coaching and athletic competition in summer and winter sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
It was founded a decade after the first-ever Special Olympics took place in Chicago in 1968.
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