Talking with Tara Llanes
Tara enjoyed a successful professional mountain bike career as a five-time U . S . National Champion , an X-Games gold medalist , and multiple World Championship medalist before a bad crash . She went on to a successful professional career in adaptive cycling , tennis and basketball . She recently opened up to Accessibility for All .
AfA : Tell us a little about yourself and what brought you to where you are today .
Tara : I grew up in Orange County , California and had a pretty great childhood . I was raised by a single mom who kept me busy by putting me in all the sports . I ran track , rode horses , played softball , basketball and raced BMX and mountain bikes . Once I got to high school , I narrowed it down to basketball and our team went on to win multiple league and state championships . Then in my junior year of high school we won a National Championship . I didn ’ t play my senior year and instead put my focus into racing mountain bikes . I moved to Colorado and wanted to make it as a pro .
After a successful professional mountain bike career as a fivetime U . S . National Champion , an X-Games gold medalist , and multiple World Championship medalist , I had a bad crash . On Sept . 1st , 2007 , the crash in Vail , Colorado led to a broken neck and back . I went through a few years of physio and , while still recovering , I ran into a former girlfriend . We started seeing each other again and eventually got married . I moved to Canada where she was really the only person I knew . It was a
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