Crash coarse/ Olympian bounces back from accident to win national

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 27, 2000 | by Paula Parrish

When he woke up in the ambulance, the first question that popped out of cyclist Johnny Bairos' mouth was obvious.

"What happened?" he said.

Riding in the ambulance with him was Willie Arrue, the father of his good friend, Marcelo Arrue, another cyclist.

"You were in a bad accident," said Willie Arrue, leaning over Bairos. "But if that crash didn't kill you, this ambulance ride might."

In the United States, ambulance drivers slow cautiously at red lights before proceeding. In Mexico City, the driver sped full-bore to the hospital, red lights be damned.

"Then, I didn't hurt very much," said Bairos, who somehow survived that spectacular crash during a World Cup race on June 18. "I didn't start hurting until after the facial surgery the next morning."

On Saturday night, only eight weeks after the accident that could have cost him his life, Bairos was wearing a gold medal. He and his three Olympic teammates - Marcelo Arrue, Marty Nothstein and Jonas Carney - won the national championship in the Olympic sprint at the 2000 EDS National Track Cycling Championships at the 7-Eleven Velodrome.

In this event, two teams of three riders race for three laps, with each rider leading the race for one lap before peeling away from his teammates and leaving the track.

"This title felt good," said Bairos, competing for the first time since the accident. "It's a relief in a way, a comeback in way. It just felt good to ride with the other guys on the Olympic team, to feel a part of it."

Bairos was involved in a crash so monstrous that the television show "Real TV," which replays such incidents, may use it.

"I've been in this sport 18 years and I've never seen a crash like that," Marcelo Arrue said. "The fact that he is still breathing is incredible."

In that now-infamous race in Mexico City, two riders ahead of Bairos got tangled up and headed up the track toward the rail, forcing him in the same direction. At the same time, a rider behind Bairos ran over his rear wheel. That propelled him up and over the velodrome's railing, where he fell 20 feet.

"I remember everything up to the railing and that's it," he said.

The injury list was long, but could have been worse if he hadn't landed directly on his face. His jaw was broken in two places. His right sinus cavity was shattered. His left sinus cavity was broken. He suffered a 30 percent break in his right kneecap.

"They were shocked I didn't have a neck fracture," he said. "My head shot straight back when I hit, so I was very lucky."

But the Olympics were only three months away. Could he recover in time?

"I decided four years ago that I was going to give 100 percent to making it to Sydney and I wasn't going to give up until someone else got on that plane," he said.

He started physical therapy 8 hours after the surgery on his knee and he was out riding his road bike eight days later, albeit very slowly.

"Because of my jaw being wired shut, I couldn't get my heart rate going much above 130-135 or I'd get light-headed," he said.

By late July, he managed to get back out on the track and has been able to train on the track about a dozen times since then.

Even while his recovery was still in progress, USA Cycling officials and coaches decided to put him on the Olympic team.

"He had been very consistent on riding first legs in the Olympic sprint, he was our strongest starter and he deserved that consideration," said Sean Petty, the director of athlete performance for USA Cycling.

"The guy has a huge heart and just an incredible amount of determination. That was a very, very, very scary wreck."

In qualifying Saturday morning, he was disappointed with his time of 23.4 seconds. His pre-accident times hovered around 22.2-22.5. He logged about the same time Saturday night, when he, Nothstein and Carney edged the second-place trio of Giddeon Massie, Josh Weir and Adam Duvendeck, who are all resident athletes at the Olympic Training Center. Arrue rode the second leg for the team in qualifying.

"I was disappointed, I don't feel it was fast enough," Bairos said.

"I'm expecting a lot of myself, to be where I was before the accident. But I know I can be before the Olympics."

- Paula Parrish may be reached at 636-0252 or pparrish@gazette.com. Edited and headline by Jim O'Connell.

By the numbers

5: Number of days of competition at the 2000 EDS National Track Cycling Championships this past week at the Velodrome.

3: Number of days events were delayed or canceled because of rain.

22: Record number of national titles held by sprint cyclist Marty Nothstein, a favorite to medal in Sydney in both the Keirin and the match sprint.

3: Number of crashes during the five days of competition.

Dry cleaning bill?

Olympian Marty Nothstein may own enough championship jerseys from winning national titles to clothe his own Little League team in red, white and blue uniforms.

On Saturday at the 2000 EDS National Track Cycling Championships, Nothstein picked up his second and third gold medals of the week, winning the men's match sprint in the morning and pedaling the second leg for the gold-medal winning Olympic sprint team at night. Earlier this week, he won the Keirin.