Byers on USA Paralympic team

Spokane’s Tyler Byers has joined select company as a member of the USA Paralympic team that will compete in Athens, Greece, in September.

He’s one of a total of 42 men and women who were picked to compete in wheelchair track and field during the world Paralympic competition that follows this year’s Athens Olympics.

It will be the second international competition for the 2000 Ferris High graduate, who is completing work toward his degree at the University of Arizona.

“I’m pretty jacked,” said Byers, who learned he had met the qualifying times in four events from 800 meters through the marathon. “I had a pretty good idea I probably would qualify, but until the final list comes out you never know.”

Last summer Byers had set a United States record at 1,500 meters during a race in Rivera, Switzerland, which qualified him for the World Games in Paris. He turned in an admittedly sub-par performance.

Following this year’s Lilac Bloomsday wheelchair race, Byers competed at a meet in Warm Springs, Ga., against top U.S. and Canadian competitors and turned in a 1:40.9 800 qualifying time, met the 5,000-meter standard at 10:04 and the 10,000 in 21:21.

“I did all right (3:04) in the 1,500,” Byers said by phone from Tucson, “but didn’t quite hit the mark.”

Earlier this year he had qualified in the marathon. He’ll decide with his coaches which of the events to race at Athens, Sept. 17-28.

“If I had to say, my best chances of a medal would be in the 5,000 and 10,000,” he said. “I don’t have the strength for an 800 sprint against the power guys and the marathon is too long for where I am strength-wise.”

The Paralympics are divided into several categories, including four levels of wheelchair disability. Byers is in the lowest level of handicap.

He was born with a spina bifida-related condition called sacralagenesis.

“Basically the spinal column doesn’t completely form,” Byers explained, “and I’m missing my sacrum (the bottom end of the spine).”

It affected leg growth and has caused, he said, an incomplete paralysis. He’s able to walk with crutches, but is most comfortable using a wheelchair.

Byers was a dominant wheelchair racer for the Saxons at state high school events and went on to compete for the University of Arizona. He has been asked to apply for the vacant coaching position there and is working for IBM in Tucson this summer.

His Bloomsday time in May was 2 minutes slower than his best.

“It was not where I wanted it to be, but wasn’t expecting a lot,” Byers said. “I hadn’t done any distance or hill training. I’d been working more on speed stuff.”

Byers said he’ll do base training for a month, then tone down the miles in mid-July to concentrate on speed work.

“It will be hard work this summer, but I think it’s worth it,” said Byers. “Making the Paralympic team has been kind of a dream, a goal for as long as I’ve been racing.” self end