Red Devil named to Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame
One of 2024 inductees into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame is still chasing her athletic dreams.
Shelley Gautier was unable to attend Sunday’s induction ceremony because she was busy training for the cycling World Cups in 2025. Normally, the wall waits for athletes to retire them before inducting them but Gautier came out of retirement to resume her paracycling career.
“I am excited to get back on track with cycling. To evolve learn and grow in a way that includes others with cycling,” she said, in a taped acceptance speech played at Sunday’s ceremony.
Gautier’s journey has been filled with challenges.
“I have learned to do things differently from other people. I ride a tricycle that had to be adapted for me. My brakes, gears, handle bar, grips and brake lever locations are all unique. I am the Red Devil who has proudly earned 18 world championship gold medals.”
Her strong sense of purpose gives her direction.
“By going out and racing with passion and grit, I have helped keep tricycle racing alive at the elite level. I am able to evolve from the experience of racing to turning setbacks into opportunities for new racers. It is exciting to race against new racers who are less than half my age. They are the future for tricycle racing. I paved the way for them. I am thrilled to be racing against new, serious racers. They may beat me but I am still doing well. Last season, I was able to place second and third in World Cup racing.”
On hand Sunday to accept the award for Gautier was her mother, Suzanne Letourneau.
“Shelley, since you were a little girl you always made goals for yourself and I always told you to never let anyone hold you back from achieving your goals. I said ‘Reach for the stars’ and you were always successful in achieving your goals,” Letourneau said. “In 2008, you told me you wanted to start riding a bike again and you wanted to go to the Paralympics. I remember saying to you that training for the Paralympics takes a lot of money and a lot of hard work. You would also need a lot of help. Well Shelley, you listened to me very well when I said ‘Don’t let anyone hold you back.’ I guess that included me and whatever barriers and obstacles you felt along the way. You fulfilled your dream. Your achievements have out-surpassed your dreams. I could not be prouder than I am here today of such a dedicated, young lady you have become.”
Gautier was a competitive mountain biker before suffering a severe head injury while biking in Vermont in 2001. She spend six weeks in a coma followed by eight months at a rehab centre in Toronto learning to walk and talk again. The right side of her body is affected by hemiplegia (one-sided paralysis).
She resumed her athletic career in disabled sailing before switching to paracycling. Gautier became the first T-1 (athlete with severe locomotive dysfunctions and insufficient balance to use a regular bicycle) rider in international paracycling.
Her career accomplishments include: winning 19 medals, including 18 gold, at the Union Cycliste Internationale Para-cycling Road World Championships; garnering silver medals at the 2011 and 2015 Parapan American Games; competing at three Paralympic Games and winning a bronze medal in the women’s T-1 time trial in 2016 to become the only T-1 female Para-cyclist from any country in the world to medal at a Paralympic Games; and, being inducted into the Inaugural Toronto Sports Hall of Honour and awarded the Sports Niagara Para-Athlete of the Year in Para Cycling in 2015.
Gautier also founded the Shelley Gautier Para-Sport Foundation to help people with disabilities access para-sports.
Also inducted last Sunday were Poppy Gilliam, Tim Topping the 1981 Niagara Falls Kiwanis Club under-13 boys soccer squad and the 2001-02 Niagara Falls Thunder midget AAA hockey team.
