After losing all her sight in 2000, she took up tandem cycling after attending a Come and Try Day with the Tandem Cycling Association. She commented that she "loved the feel of the speed as we were flying along and going round the corners on an angle, and sprinting for the finish line." With her tandem pilot Fiona Scarff, she first represented Australia at the 2002 IPC World Championships in Germany where she won a silver medal and three bronze medals. She won a gold medal in the road race at the 2003 European Cycling Championships, and broke a world record in the 200 m fly time trial at the 2003 national championships. At the Australian Championships before the 2004 Athens Paralympics, Shaw and her tandem partner Kelly McCombie broke two world records, including the 3 km pursuit, smashing 3 seconds off the world record time. Shaw and McCombie won two bronze medals at the games in the Women's Road Race / Time Trial Tandem B1–3 and the Women's Individual Pursuit Tandem B1–3. She was coached by Andrew Bludge and Darryl Benson.