09 Sep 2008
It seems an unlikely combination. A part-time cycling coach who focuses on junior development teams up with a former Paralympic champion skier to prepare him for a possible cycling berth in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Yet the pairing of coach John Armstrong and former Paralympic skiing gold medallist Michael Milton has already reaped results.  In less than two years of training under Armstrong’s tutelage, Milton made the 2008 Australian Paralympic cycling team.

Along the way there have been many hurdles, not all of them cycling related. In July 2007, Milton was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. He underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy and then had surgery to remove his oesophagus and two-thirds of his stomach.

Armstrong says that when Milton was diagnosed we were ‘really scratching our heads as to what was happening’.  It really puts things into perspective that life’s far more important than a bike ride. But having said that, I believe the pursuit of a dream—Michael’s drive to reach and perform well at the Paralympics had a lot to do with the speed of his recovery.’

Armstrong gives full praise to Milton for his approach to training.  ‘It is exciting to work with an athlete who readily recognises what we are after and hones his thinking towards attaining that. Michael, more than any other athlete that I’ve worked with, can pick up the specific skill required remarkably quickly.’

Armstrong admits that when Milton initially approached him about becoming his coach, he suggested a number of other coaches might be better placed to help him.

‘When he came to me I laid it all out for him ... that I had a full time job, that he would really need to work hard to attain the result he wanted.  He was prepared to do the work, so I said ‘let’s see what we can do’.

Armstrong, a well respected coach in the Canberra cycling community, works with a number of the ACT’s up and coming young cyclists, as well as being the coach of another current Paralympic cyclist competing in Beijing, Jane Armstrong.