Andrew Hairston // Para-cycling
Motto: “We all have excuses, I choose not to use mine”
Paralympic hopeful and US Marine Corps Captain Andrew Hairston made his adaptive sports debut in June 2021, finishing third in the handcycle at the Achilles Hope & Possibility 4-Miler. “It was the first time that I actually felt like myself again,” said Andrew, who was rehabbing at Walter Reed Hospital after an accident and amputation of his leg. A lifetime elite athlete, Andrew had been All-Territory Defensive Back for his high school football team, then competed in track at the Division II level, qualifying twice for the national championships (4x100m his freshman year, 60m sophomore year). “The Marine Corps, they’re very big on athletics and getting the Marines out there to just take part in sports,” said Hairston. “So the moment they saw that I was doing well in cycling they asked me to come out and join Team Marine Corps.”
Andrew completed his first marathon in November of 2021 with a time of 2:06:00, quickly dropping his PR to 1:39:00 at the Boston Marathon April 2022, and then completing the October 2022 Detroit Marathon in a scorching 1:31:50. In 2022 Andrew also finished 8th in the US Paralympic Cycling Open Time Trial, defied expectations by winning both the Time Trial and Road Race at the Warrior Games, then completed his 2022 season with a win at the Army 10 Miler and second place at the Marine Corps Marathon. “Although this is my first year competing in para-cycling since losing my leg, I’ve progressed tremendously,” said Andrew.
Andrew currently serves with the Wounded Warrior Battalion where he plans sporting events; wheelchair basketball tournaments, a wheelchair football “Turkey Bowl,” and a “Not So Nordic” Cycling and Shooting Biathlon. As the first para-cyclist in US Virgin Islands history, Andrew collaborates with the Virgin Islands Cycling Federation and Paralympic Committee and local VA to provide para-cycling clinics in the Virgin Islands, with plans to add para-cycling categories and events throughout the Caribbean.
In 2023 Andrew will continue his professional and public advocacy for para-cycling, as well as training hard to qualifying for the 2024 Paralympic Games. He’ll compete in the Boston Marathon, UCI World Cup events, DoD Warrior Games, the Mid-Atlantic Para-Cycling Series, US Para-Cycling Nationals, and – if all goes well – the UCI World Championships.