Lora Fachie was overcome with emotion as she won her third bronze of the Games in the women's road race.  

The cyclist, who is piloted by Corinne Hall, was unable to stop the tears as she reflected on her first Paralympic cycle as a mother, and the first in which she has won three medals in one Games. 

Fachie gave birth to her son Fraser in November 2022 and has spoken openly about the challenges she faced returning to the sport as a mum. 

The 36-year-old said, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games. 

: “We had to fight for that one. We have never won three medals at a Games. 

“It’s taken three Games to get to three medals at one so maybe at our fourth, we’ll get four! 

“That was as good as we could have got today, we had nothing more to give, I’m immensely proud of that. 

“Three bronzes is a fair representation of where we are at the moment, we couldn’t have done more.   

“Both of us would have liked a medal of a different colour but from four races, to come away with three medals, considering how our cycle has gone, it’s a really big achievement.” 

Fachie attended London 2012 but failed to win a medal with pilot Fiona Duncan but with Hall has enjoyed strong success. 

The pair won gold and bronze at Rio 2016, defending their pursuit title on the track at Tokyo and also winning bronze in the track time trial. 

However, Friday’s bronze marks the first time the pair have won a road race medal at the Games. 

The pair were among the leaders on the first lap before being dropped, rejoining eventual gold and silver medallists Sophie Unwin of Great Britain and Katie-George Dunlevy of Ireland. 

However, the pair were dropped again, finishing one minute 35 seconds down on Unwin, but comfortably clear of Ireland’s Josephine Healion in fourth place. 

Hall said: “We are absolutely delighted, it’s our first road race medal at the Games. 

“It was tough, the first few laps were fine but when it all started splitting up we hung on to the Irish bike (Jenny/Sophie) as long as we could.  

“It was a case of getting our head down, we got back up to them just before the climb again. With two to go, the elastic snapped so it was time trial mode and give everything we could until the finish. We are both very happy with that bronze medal.” 

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