Adventures – Athletics

Mike Dawson has always been an active sportsman, playing and enjoying watching a variety of sports from rugby to golf, basketball to mountain biking. He is also a big fan of Formula 1.

In 2012, seven years after being diagnosed with MS, but still coming to terms with the changes in his mobility, he heard that Alex Zanardi would be competing in handcycling at the Paralympic Games in London. Zanardi is a former F1 driver who had both his legs amputated following a crash in 2001, and Mike, who hadn’t come across handcycling before, decided to go and check it out.

Seeing his old F1 favourite win two gold medals for Italy was a major factor in Mike deciding to take a closer look at handcycling. It also appealed as traditional bicycles were increasingly difficult for Mike to ride, as he adjusted to the loss of strength and endurance in his legs.

Mike found a local place to borrow a handcycle, and discovered he enjoyed it so much that he quickly bought one. He progressed quickly and started to take part in race events. After 18 months, he was invited to participate in a race of the world’s top handcyclists through the streets of London. Mike came 12th overall and came on board to help the Handcycling Association UK (HCAUK).

Handcycling proved to be the stepping stone to triathlons (consisting of swim, handcycle and ‘run’ using a racing chair), which became the stepping stone to an Ironman. In 2015 Mike completed the Ironman 70.3 at Pula in Croatia in 6 hours and 36 minutes. For Mike, this consisted of three arm powered events: a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile handbike ride and a 13.1-mile run in a racing wheelchair. Feeling proud of this achievement, Mike felt motivated to see what else he could accomplish. He competed in a number of triathlons and 5k, 10k and half marathons, and started to realise that it was the swimming part he really enjoyed.

This led him to his biggest adventure so far: swimming the English Channel.


Click here to get in touch with us now to book Mike and his story for your event.