Tara Llanes
Tara Janelle Llanes (born November 28, 1976 in West Covina, California United States) is a Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1990-1993. She became a champion Mountain Bike (MTB) racer. She later played wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball for Canada. Her surname is pronounced "Yaw-ness" but for obvious reasons it is often mispronounced "lanes" as in the type of division of a pathway. BMX racing career milestones. Note: Professional first are on the national level unless otherwise indicated. Retired: Originally in 1995 to focus on Mountain Bike racing full time. She restarted  in late 2006 with an eye toward making the 2008 Olympic Team. See "First professional race result". According to Llanes USA Cycling asked her tor restart her BMX career: However, an apparent career-ending injury in MTB eliminated that possibility for 2008. She has however, stated her goal to be to return to racing competition. Career factory and major bike shop sponsors. Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous ever changing co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the  time in question. When possible exact dates are used. Career bicycle motocross titles. Note: Listed are District, State/Provincial/Department, Regional, National and International titles. Only sanctioning bodies that were active during the racer's career are listed. Amateur/Junior Women. National Bicycle League (NBL) American Bicycle Association (ABA) Mountain Bike Career Record. In 1993 while still racing BMX for Haro Bicycles, she asked that sponsor for a mountain bike and to go to a mountain bike race. She liked it and soon transitioned from BMX to MTB, with cross country Dual Slalom and after Dual Slalom was abolished by  NORBA the 4-Cross Downhill events. During her mountain bike years she acquired the nickname of "T", the first letter of her given name. Unlike in BMX she turned pro in 1996. She almost immediately started doing well on the pro circuit but it was not until 1999 that she won her first title. In the now discontinued Dual Slalom down hill event of that year's ESPN Winter Extreme Games (also known Winter "X" Games), Tara took a Gold medal. She would go on to win a further 14 medals in the next seven years of her career including  five championships. During this time she also suffered numerous injuries including punctured lungs and a broken foot. Then in September 2007, the most devastating of all; a crash that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She is in rigorous rehabilitation and despite physician's diagnosis of her never being able to walk again, she is determined to not only walk again, but to return to riding a bicycle and even competing. The last chapter of Llanes's racing career is probably not already written in the face of such determination. Mountain Bike career milestones. Started racing: According to her  website In 1993 at 16 years old. She asked the BMX team manager of Haro Designs who was sponsoring her repeatedly to try it and he finally relented. but in a May 2007 "Mountain Bike Action" interview it was Haro Bicycles that asked her to give it a try. Sub Discipline(s): Down Hill, 4-Cross, Dual Slalom and Cross Country First race result: According to Llanes's website. First in Junior Women in Dual Slalom at the Big Bear Lake, California. According to her "Mountain Bike Action" May 2000 interview it was a 2nd place in Junior Women in Dual  Slalom at the 1993 NORBA Finals at Mammouth Mountain Resort in Mammoth Lakes, California. Sanctioning body: National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) Turned Professional: 1996 Retired: Her career has been on hold since her paralyzing injury suffered at the Jeep King of the Mountain finals event in Beaver Creek, Colorado on September 1, 2007. She is currently under intense physical rehabilitation with the intention of riding a bicycle again. Career MTB factory and major Non-factory sponsors. Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous co-sponsors. Primary sponsorships  can be verified by MTB press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question. When possible exact dates are given. Career Mountain Bike Racing (MTB) titles. Amateur/Junior Women. National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) USA Cycling Professional/Elite Women. ESPN Extreme (X) Games: Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) USA Cycling Significant MTB injuries. 2007 Spinal cord injury. On September 1, 2007, Llanes crashed at Beaver Creek, Colorado, host to the Jeep King of the Mountain Finale. The accident happened on the second to last straight down the Dual Slalom course as she  raced head-to-head against Jill Kintner in the semifinals. Llanes hit an obstacle wrong and the bicycle landed nose first on the ground. She was thrown over the handlebars and onto her head and then landed on her back, suffering massive and severe lower back trauma, suffering a C-7 fracture and L-1 damage to her vertebrae, and paralyzing her lower extremities. She was first rushed to Vail Valley Medical Center and then was airlifted to Denver Health Hospital. She underwent seven hours of surgery but still had no feeling from the waist down. According to the surgeons who worked  on her, the condition is most likely permanent. Llanes recalls the moment of the accident: Llanes continues to undergo intensive rehabilitation and as of late 2008 she could move her left leg. Her stated goal is to get back into competitive racing again. As she stated in an interview with pedalpushersonline.com: Wheelchair basketball. Llanes took a new career selling adaptive mountain bikes, and began playing wheelchair tennis. She met Amanda Yan who suggested that she might try wheelchair basketball. Her friend, Richard Peter encouraged this, in the belief that it would improve her performance on the tennis court. She took  up the sport in 2016, playing for the BC Royals and BC Breakers, and two years later was chosen as part of the Canadian national team for the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Hamburg, Germany. See also. Motocross World Championship