Ross
Wilson

2020 Paralympian Ross Wilson hasn’t slowed down since his double silver medal performance at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. In his first major event after the Games, he swept gold in all three events at the 2017 World Track Championships in Los Angeles.

He has collected medals at the 2017, 2018 and 2019 road worlds as well as the 2018 track worlds.

He kept busy in 2020. He raced at the track cycling worlds in Milton, Ont., just before the pandemic hit. He was Tristen Chernove’s assistant in his BC Epic 1000 race that summer and, at the end of the year, he joined Chernove in the Everesting challenge: vEveresting, where they virtually ascended the height of Mount Everest on their stationary bikes. Both events raised funds for the Paralympic Foundation of Canada. 

In Rio, he was part of Canada’s most successful sport at the Games with silver in the individual pursuit and silver in the time trial on the road.

He had a tough 2015: in June, Wilson was preparing for the road worlds in Switzerland. A car backed out of a parking stall and struck him while he was cycling around 30 kilometres per hour. He flew through the back window, breaking his clavicle, some ribs and vertebrae and requiring hundreds of stiches.

Remarkably, Wilson competed three months later at the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games. But disaster struck again. A crash during a race left him with more than 100 stiches in his shoulder, forcing him to temporarily leave the sport he was so passionate about.

In March 2016, he returned to win his second consecutive silver medal in the 3000-m at the Para cycling Track World Championships.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2021 Paralympic Games… Double medallist at 2016 Paralympic Games… 2015 Parapan American Games… 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 World Championships.

PERSONAL
Chartered accountant… Bachelor’s of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta… He purchased a road bike for himself in 2012 as his reward for losing 100 pounds… He has a neurological condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Disease… He served on the Canadian Paralympic Athletes’ Council with his term ending in 2020

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

• 2021 Paralympic Games, time trial, 7th
• 2020 World Track Championships, individual pursuit 6th
• 2020 World Track Championships, scratch race, 7th 
• 2020 World Track Championships, Omnium, 7th 
• 2020 World Track Championships, kilo, 10th 
• 2019 World Road Championships, time trial, 3rd 
• 2018 World Road Championships, time trial, 2nd
• 2018 World Track Championships, individual pursuit, 2nd
• 2018 World Track Championships, kilo, 4th
• 2018 World Track Championships, scratch race, 2nd 
• 2017 World Road Championships, time trial, 2nd 
• 2017 World Road Championships, road race, 4th
• 2017 World Track Championships, individual pursuit, 1st
• 2017 World Track Championships, kilo, 1st
• 2017 World Track Championships, scratch race, 1st 
• 2016 Paralympic Games, road time trial, 2nd 
• 2016 Paralympic Games, ind. pursuit, 2nd
• 2016 World Track Championship, ind. pursuit 2nd
• 2016 World Track Championship, time trial 4th 
• 2015 World Track Championships, ind. pursuit 2nd
• 2014 World Road Championships, time trial 6th
• 2014 World Road Championships, road race 7th