From 2002-2013 American Mike Creed was a professional road racer, on teams such as U.S. Postal Service, Discovery Channel, TIAA-CREF, Rock Racing, Team Type 1, and Optum. In his first year as a team director at SmartStop, a lesser-known U.S. Continental program, his riders went 1-2 at the 2014 U.S. national road championship. And in November 2015, Creed turned down an offer to be a director with Cannondale-Drapac to sign on as head coach of U.S. Paralympics Cycling.

And Rio was a successful first Paralympic Games for Creed. As a team, the U.S had arguably its best Paralympic Games performance ever, finishing the road cycling program in Rio with 13 medals, one more than they won at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The team also collected five medals in track cycling, matching its total from the London Games. The 18 total medals (four gold, nine silver, five bronze), is the most ever won in Paralympic cycling by a U.S. team.

Jamie Whitmore rode to a silver medal in the women’s individual pursuit at the 2016 Paralympic Games. Whitmore also won gold in the road race. She was a world class competitor in Xterra with 37 wins, including one world championship, before a battle with cancer almost cost her life in 2008 and damaged her left leg.

Find out why Creed took on this new challenge, and what memories he took away from the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, in this podcast interview.

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Episode 11 Direct Download