Paige Greco, Paralympic biking gold medalist, dies after “sudden medical episode” at age 28

Australian bike owner Paige Greco, a Paralympic gold medalist, has died. She was 28.

A joint assertion by the Australian Paralympic Committee and Australian Biking Federation mentioned that Greco “handed away in her Adelaide dwelling after experiencing a sudden medical episode” on Sunday.

“Paige meant every part to us,” her mom Natalie Greco mentioned in an announcement. “Her kindness, her dedication and her heat touched our household each single day. She introduced a lot pleasure and satisfaction into our lives, and the ache of her passing is one thing we’ll carry without end.

“Whereas we’re devastated by her loss, we’re extremely happy with the individual she was and the best way she represented Australia.”

Greco, who was born with cerebral palsy, received the primary gold medal of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, breaking her personal world document within the girls’s C1-3 3,000-meter particular person pursuit. She went on so as to add bronze medals within the highway race and time trial.

In August, she received one other bronze medal on the para-cycling World Championships in Belgium, this time for the C3 highway race occasion, BBC Information reported.

Greco additionally received a number of world championship titles and World Cup medals, after bursting onto the para-cycling scene with three world data, two gold medals and a silver on the 2019 monitor world championship — only a yr after switching to biking from para-athletics.

Cameron Murray, chief government officer of Paralympics Australia, mentioned the lack of one of many brightest younger stars of the Australian Paralympic motion was devastating.

“The unhappiness being felt throughout Paralympics Australia at the moment is a mirrored image of the large regard during which she was held,” Murray mentioned. “Paige was a unprecedented athlete, however extra importantly, a exceptional individual.

“Her achievements on the worldwide stage had been distinctive, however it was her kindness, her quiet dedication and the best way she uplifted folks round her that may stick with us all. She had a uncommon potential to make folks really feel included and supported, and her affect will little question depart an enduring impression on so many.”

AusCycling’s Chief Govt Officer Marne Fechner referred to as Greco an “extraordinary athlete who achieved excellent accomplishments on the highest ranges of [the] sport.”

“Far more than that, she touched the lives of everybody round her along with her optimistic spirit and brave outlook,” Fechner mentioned.