As Sydney Gasper exited the water following a career-best time in the swimming leg of her second NCAA Triathlon National Championship on Nov. 12, 2022, she cleanly transitioned onto her bike, not knowing what fate had in store for her.

"It was my best swim I'd ever had," said Gasper. "I was really happy when I got out of the water and saw all the bikes still there, and thought, 'Oh my gosh I'm in such a good spot right now'."

Gasper had never thought of herself as a cyclist. However, leading up to nationals, training had been going well for Gasper and she was feeling great in the first half of the race. In previous competition, she hadn't had clean transitions out of the water and onto the bike – but this race was different.

That was until she was at the forefront of a five-bike crash in the middle of the NCAA Triathlon National Championship.

Following the 750-meter swim, the bike portion was a 12.4-mile three-loop track, and after a clean first lap she was feeling confident.

"In previous races out of the water I've had trouble getting in a draft pack right away," Gasper added. "So that was one of the first races I'd been able to come out and be in the pack immediately."

She was in the second chase pack, moving fast and gaining on the lead group. According to a teammate's watch, they were traveling over 25 miles per hour.

"I was thinking, 'This is going to go so well'," said Gasper.

As her draft pack rotated leaders, Gasper was next up to lead. Other cyclists were yelling at the lone biker ahead of Gasper to either move to the back of the group or speed up.

Then midway through the second loop, on the downhill portion roughly five miles in, the second draft pack wrecked.

"I just closed my eyes and it didn't really fully register what was happening," said Gasper. "The cyclist in front of me slammed on her brakes and then … I think that the girl behind me hit my tire. I think the bike of the girl behind me landed on me, but it's hard to tell. Most of it was road rash, but there were some cuts that were deeper than others and I'm not sure what exactly came from what."

"I remember hitting the ground and feeling the road rubbing into my arms, then I remember thinking, 'Oh, crashing didn't hurt as bad as I always thought it would.' So, I must have had so much adrenaline that it didn't hurt."

Other Yellow Jacket racers involved in the crash were Lilja McKendry and Myna Buckley.

Buckley had a few cuts, but her bike was destroyed, keeping her from continuing. McKendry wasn't as lucky, sustaining a small fracture in her ankle, along with her bike also being destroyed, completely losing its front tire.

 

Gasper, though, wasn't down for more than a minute as she assessed the damage to her bike, and herself. She got up, tossed aside a piece that had broken off her helmet, and  hopped back onto her bike.

"I just kind of got back up and didn't really know what to do, so I just picked up my bike and figured, if I can pedal, I can finish the race," Gasper said.

Assessing her bike, the left side of the handlebar that has the brake and shift was bent up and out in front. Usually a finger length away, she now had to reach all the way around with her arm to shift and brake her bike.

Just as important, her derailer, which shifts the bike, had always had issues, so she was worried that would be broken and she wouldn't be able to shift at all.
"I went to shift and it shifted," she explained with relief. "I'm always having to adjust that; I don't know how that didn't get messed up."

As she settled into the final seven miles of the bike leg of the race, adrenaline still pumping, Gasper eventually looked down at her handlebars and thought, "whose blood is on my handlebars?"

It was hers.

At this point of the race, Gasper didn't know the extent of her injuries, but she had large cuts and road rash on her hands, as well as cuts to her nose, lip and chin. Also among her injuries was a deep gash in her hip, but she wouldn't know that until hours after finishing the race.

"I haven't seen anybody complete a race after a crash like that with that speed and skill level," said BHSU Triathlon Head Coach, Connie Feist. "She's literally the first athlete I've ever seen get up, after having injuries of that extent, and finish."

But as far as Gasper was concerned, it was Nationals, and she was going to finish the race. Plus the final stretch would be the leg she had always been most comfortable in, a 3.2-mile run.

"I've made it this far, might as well just keep going," Gasper said of her mentality. "I just have to get to the run, and it'll be okay."

She finally finished the 12.4-mile bike leg and was ready to run, but the medical tent wanted to make sure she was okay.

"When I got into the run transition, the med tent did run up to me, but I just put my shoes on and didn't even listen to what they were saying," said Gasper. "I just went for the run."

That's when her adrenaline started to taper off. She knew she was pretty beat up and was going through a good amount of pain as she regained feeling in her hands and felt a cut on her hip that her suit kept rubbing on.

"It didn't feel terrible," Gasper admitted. "At least it was the run. This was the event that I'm good at, so I knew I'd be okay."

As the pain in her hands continued to burn, she noticed she was running very tight and tensed up. But she remembered her coach from Falcon High School who would always tell her to relax and run when she was tense. She would repeat those words in her head as she ran, helping her to stay loose.

 

Another source of motivation were her parents there at the race. They travel all over to all her races, and nationals was no different.

"It helped a lot," said Gasper. "My dad was in the middle of the bike portion at some point after I had crashed, way out in the middle of the bike course cheering for me. My mom was in the transition area cheering for me. Just the fact that my parents were there supporting me helped a lot."

They were with her the entire stretch of the run when she needed them, too.

"My dad ran probably five miles with me, cheering me on," Gasper said. "I could hear him at every part of the run.

"At one point my dad was like, 'You look like such a badass right now!'"

"I said, 'I do, and I really feel like one right now!'"

Despite the crash and the injuries, she had to overcome, she still finished fourth for BHSU and 31^st overall in 1:16:26, a time similar to where she had placed the year prior. And just as importantly, had she not gotten up to finish the race, the Yellow Jackets would have only had four finishers, while a team needs five to place.

"I've still developed a lot as an athlete if I crashed and still finished where I did last year," Gasper said. "I was still just really proud of myself for finishing, and it still wasn't my worst triathlon."

From the finish line, she was guided directly to the med tent where they cleaned up her cuts, bandaged her up and carted her to the nearby Airbnb the team was staying at so she didn't have to walk her bike all the way there.

"I still kind of had adrenaline and just laughed at the situation as a coping mechanism to keep things light," Gasper said with a smile.

But to this point, she still wouldn't realize she had a deep gash on her hip until she was back at the team's Airbnb.

Laying by the pool to try and relax, she noticed a hole in her suit. She lifted her suit up to find that gash in her hip that was deep enough to reveal muscle, fascia, and fat, and realized she might need to go to the hospital.

"I just saw that really gross fascia part first, with white stuff coming out of my body," Gasper recalled. "I almost threw up. The other cuts and scratches didn't bother me, but that one did."

 

That's when reality set in for Gasper, and Coach Feist took her to the hospital. There were a few cuts they were able to stitch up, but with so much road rash over the top of everything, there was no skin to stitch in a lot of areas.

"It took a really long time to heal," said Gasper. "My elbows and hands healed first, but the one on my hip took about a month to close all the way. It was exhausting. I had grease stains on all my clothes from the Vaseline I had to apply to keep my wound from drying out. Every shower I had to unwrap everything… I would cry out of frustration that I couldn't just take a quick shower, it took an hour to do everything."

The first week of recovery was painful, especially the hands where it hurt to do anything from taking notes in class to opening doors. And the bandages impeded her mobility to the point where she couldn't run, an activity that had become a stress reliever for her.

After the crash on Nov. 12, her wounds didn't close completely until Christmas break. Then she had to do some physical therapy to complete the recovery process.

"Since it was such a deep cut, there was a possibility it could have fused to the muscle underneath," said Gasper. "So I had to be constantly rubbing it so it wasn't growing onto places it shouldn't be."

Gasper is an exercise science major and wants to do physical therapy when she graduates. Her mom is a physical therapist in a burn clinic, and since road rash is considered a friction burn, she got to work with her a little bit too.

"It was kind of cool," Gasper said. "I got to practice treating myself and bandaging things. And it being out of season, I was writing my own workouts to get back into things. Now I have stuff I have to put on it that people use after                                                                                       surgery that reduces scarring," Gasper said.

Scars aren't always a bad thing, though. They can represent the resiliency a person exemplifies through a moment in their life, and how they come out stronger on the other side.

"Before the crash, bike was always my least favorite portion. I hated the bike," Gasper explained. "But honestly after the crash, I'm more confident seeing what I can do even after crashing. I think I've started to like biking more after that and I have a little bit more respect for myself after that. It was a big confidence boost just seeing what I can do.

"The scars are kind of fun now and it's a good story. All my teammates always point to them and everyone on the team knows what it is, so it's kind of cool. Cassidy Teeslink has started calling me roadkill."

And it is worthy of note that the mangled bike she finished at Nationals with was also able to make a full recovery after some mended scratches, repositioned handlebars, and some new wrap.

Her next barrier is getting back onto that bike in a race and getting back into a draft pack after the crash.

"I'll probably be extra cautious and nervous, but adrenaline will take over and it'll come back and be natural," Gasper said. "I've honestly gained quite a bit of confidence from it, and I respect myself a lot more. I have a lot more respect for my body, seeing what it can do in that race and all it did for me. I didn't stop."

And she won't stop. Just like after her crash, it's onto the next thing for Gasper as she plans to race in the team's next event, the Clermont Draft Legal Challenge on March 4-5 in Clermont, Fla.

"I'm really excited to race again," Gasper exclaimed. "After the first half of the race at nationals and everything I pushed through to finish, I'm really excited to see what I can do."