Billy Lister
Stroke sufferer . CYCLIST . usa paracycling team .
Billy suffered a slow and regressive stroke at the age of 17. Every day he woke up he couldn’t do something he could the day before; type on a keyboard, tie his shoes, brush his teeth, run. After about 4 weeks the episode finally ceased and left him with a full left side hemi paresis state.
Having been an athlete his whole life the burden of losing the ability to take part in sports was a tremendous strain to cope with. For many years he simply survived with his disability but in his words he was "only surviving life, not living it".
Then in 2011 he attended a Paratriathlon camp for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and got on a bike for the first time since he was 17 years old. Since then he's been living life to the fullest!
Billy has competed in over 20 triathlons; reaching the podium in several of the National Paratriathlon races, and ultimately winning the points championship in the 2012 USA Paratriathlon series. In November 2013 he competed at the US Indoor Track Paracycling National Championships and, having only ridden a track bike twice in his life, became a National Champion in the Men’s C2 Division, the 3 Kilometer Individual Pursuit and the 1 Kilometer Time Trial.
In 2014 he was named to the TeamUSA roster for the UCI Paracycling World Cup in Segovia, Spain and chosen for the World Championships team to represent TeamUSA in Greenville, SC. His ultimate goal to compete for the United States of America at the 2016 Paralympic games in Rio de Janeiro.
