Inside the Race to LA28: How Team USA Paracycling Revitalized Its Program

By Alex Carpenter

The world of USA Paracycling needed a makeover. For too long, things were falling through the cracks: pre-race training, integration of performance technology, proper cooling techniques.

To solve this? Enter Chris Furber.

He describes himself as the antithesis of Ted Lasso, a native of Manchester, England, with almost three decades of experience in high-performance sport. 

Serving as the head coach for British Cycling’s para-cycling program, he guided the country through five Paralympic Games, including the home Games in London in 2012, and 17 World Championships. 

Furber is no novice to the sport; he's not a college football coach from Kansas like Lasso—he's here to lead the way in the biggest moment in U.S. Paralympic history. 

“It really made a difference,” said Furber of his time working with the UK team. “Suddenly, they were famous, they were on telly, you could see people in wheelchairs, you could see people with prosthetics, you could see blind people. So it just made a huge difference.”

To do this, it’s a three-pronged approach; but first, it starts with culture. Not the buzzword thrown around by every new coach when trying to begin a program, but a base that starts with simple things.

“When we're out on the race course, a lot of times it's an individual sport out there, but we need to support each other as a team and have the culture of just building that up as a team over the years,” Dennis Connors, a 2024 Paralympian trike cyclist, said. “Especially this year with the change to USA Cycling. We're able to do a fresh start. Okay, let's rebuild this. Let's be positive. Let's take some leadership roles. Let's just get in there and build a culture that's positive, that's supportive of everybody. A rising tide lifts all ships.”

When Samantha Bosco took the stage and planted herself atop the podium with the rainbow jersey and a gold medal for the Women's C4 time trials, the national anthem of the United States blared. 

Furber, the proud Brit, was the loudest of the USA squad; he was encouraging his fellow staff and athletes to sing along. 

“I think every staff member, every athlete understands the journey that people have been on to be here, and we are as cutthroat and determined to win as they are in any Olympic sport,” said Furber. “Once the racing is done out there, once the competition is over, there is a real camaraderie.”

 On July 1, 2025, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) officially adopted the U.S. Paralympic Cycling program into USA Cycling, a move that is the standard in other successful Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

The decision for change boiled down to a shared belief held by people like Jim Miller, Chief of Sport Performance for USA Cycling. 

“It was a financial question 25 years ago, and we opted out,” Miller said. “Two, three years ago, our NGO, the USOPC, met with us and asked us if we would be interested in taking on Para. And we said, yeah, but it's got to come with the proper amount of funding to build a proper program. Right now, it's not. It doesn't have the funding needed to grow it the way it needs to be grown.”

Miller has been around cycling his whole life. As an athlete himself before choosing to go into coaching, he knows almost everyone involved in cycling; the international cycling community is a well-connected, tightly knit group.

When Miller and the USAC (United States of America Cycling) knew paracycling was being added — he already knew the only person for the job. 

“Regardless of discipline, I'm always looking around for coaches. Who are the good staff? Who’s doing a good job?” Miller said. “I met Chris when he was in British cycling long before he went to running or swimming and led those sports, and as soon as we started to really entertain the idea of this, I was like, 'Man, I know the guy to lead this and run this. He's been doing it in GB.’ He was like me. He was a great coach. The question for me is whether we could get him in the office.”

At the time, Furber had led Team GB to around 580 international senior medals and roughly 120 Paralympic medals in three different sports; the grind was catching up with him. Being in the British system had worn down the lifelong coach, and he had begun to seriously consider calling it quits. 

Furber, however, loves opportunity, and when Miller approached him with Team USA and the chance to create something special, along with the resources to do it, he was all in.

Getting started in January of 2026, Furber sat down with his staff, the higher-ups at USA Cycling and USOPC and developed a vision; there were three things that needed to be done. 

Step one for Team USA was to raise the standard, be bold, and set extremely high expectations going into every competition. American exceptionalism was missing from the paracycling program. After identifying high goals and setting the standards, step two is being willing to relentlessly chase them.

“Leave no stone unturned. I guess bringing a little bit of that marginal gains culture that you've seen in the UK over to what we're doing,” Furber said. “As a great example of that here, the time, the effort, the resources that's gone into making sure we were prepared for this environment.” 

In preparation for the 2026 World Championships in Huntsville, Ala., the team had required pre-race training in nearby Birmingham to acclimate to the conditions—real-feel temperatures of 105 degrees and humidity levels that leave no room for a moment of relief. Instead of viewing the weather as an unfortunate outcome, how can athletes use it to their advantage? 

“How could we make sure that when we came here, we had all of the heat mitigation things that we could have? Furber said. “So you'll see slushy machines, you'll see fans, you'll see ice fest, you'll see a tent within a tent, so that we can keep the riders cool. That's a competitive advantage if you get that right.

 The final main goal was expressed in one word: legacy. 

LA28 is a critical point in the Paralympic movement; when nations host the Games, it revitalizes the movement, introduces it, and makes eyes-on attention to athletes and their stories more accessible. Furber, just as he did at the helm of London 2012, wants to make a difference. Not just for his athletes, but for every disabled person in the United States. 

To achieve that, he wants his team to be active in their community, talking with the media, smiling and interacting with fans, and utilizing the platform. 

Medals are nice too. 

“They wanted help; they were asking for help. They just didn't always know where to turn. And hopefully now we're starting to drive them in that direction, Miller said. “I think honestly we put a pretty fairly ambitious goal. I think fairly ambitious for Paralympics: 15 medals. But when I looked at his program from the onset, I'm like, I actually don't think it's that crazy to get to. I think it's well within reach.”