A Traumatic Crash Nearly Took Cycling Away From Samantha Bosco; Instead She’s Come Back Stronger Than Ever

Sliding into consciousness, Samantha Bosco remembers seeing yellow socks, fluorescent lights and elevator doors. It wasn’t until she saw her mom’s curly hair that it hit her: “Oh no, something’s really wrong.”

Her mom and her brother were living in Florida at the time. Bosco lived in Southern California. So how did they all end up together in this small room?

Bosco went to turn over. Everything hurt. Eventually, she found the strength to ask her husband what was going on. Andrew Bosco explained that his wife, the star cyclist who was preparing for her second Paralympic Games, had been on a training ride when an accident left her with a pair of skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. In the short term, her coming trip to Tokyo was out of the question. Her future beyond that was even murkier.

A worse scenario was hardly imaginable for Bosco, not the least because she had gold-medal aspirations at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

What she knows now is that the hardship didn’t stop her. It made her better. 

“I am even stronger than the pavement trying to take me out,” she said this spring at the Team USA Media Summit, a promotional event for aspiring 2024 U.S. Olympians and Paralympians in New York.

Not to say it was easy, but three years after leaving that hospital room Bosco, 37, has been nearly unbeatable on the road, winning back-to-back world titles in both the road race and time trial in 2022 and 2023; she’s also added six world championships medals on the track since her injury.

Following another strong spring in which she added three more wins and a runner-up finish on the road world cup circuit, Bosco clinched her third Paralympic berth at the U.S. selection event in early July in California.

“I feel like I’m stronger because of the adversity,” she said. “I wish that it wasn’t so hard for the other people around me, but I definitely think that it helps me thrive and it helps me be more motivated when things are hard and that workout’s hard and you don’t want to finish, or you question why you’re still doing the sport when you have a bad day.

“I’ve had worse, and this is my chance to make something of it.”

Born in Alaska, Bosco’s heart has been on two wheels since her early days riding to school with her dad and racing her mountain bike through the single-track trails of Anchorage’s Kincaid Park.

Her path has never been perfectly linear, though.

At age 11, Bosco (nee Heinrich) began a series of surgeries to fix a leg-length discrepancy. Three years and a lot of rehab later, she emerged with permanent damage to her right leg that left her unable to ride a bike. Instead she pivoted to other sports, and even raced crew for two years at the University of Central Florida.

Eventually she found her way back to two wheels via an adapted bike, and the sport became the central passion in her life. Samantha and Andrew Bosco, a BMX rider, met at a bike race in Wisconsin and married two years later. They now live in Claremont, California, just east of Los Angeles, where Andrew runs a bike fitting business while Samantha trains for international competition. The sport runs deep on both sides of the extended family, including a young nephew who’s already raced BMX at a world level.

Embraced in this world, Samantha reached her first Para-cycling world championships in 2013, and three years later at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016, she earned Paralympic bronze medals in the track pursuit and road time trial. By 2021, she was a world champion and qualified for Tokyo.

That’s when everything was suddenly taken from her.

During the hard months of rehab, Andrew asked Samantha if she still wanted to ride.

“I did,” she said, “but there was still that little bit of doubt.”

That doubt disappeared the moment she rolled back to the starting line at a 2022 selection race in Alabama.

“I knew instantly, looking around, that that was what I wanted to do,” she said. “I loved the sport even more, and I think that has helped hone in the motivation and truly help me be the strongest person I can be.”

Already one of the world’s most accomplished racers before her injury, Bosco has been at another level since coming back. And it’s not just the wins. Take last year’s Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile. After crashing early in the road race, Bosco not only got back up, but she charged back to win a bronze medal. It seems whatever life has to throw at her lately, she’s ready to turn around and throw it right back.

“I feel like I am the strongest physically and mentally that I’ve ever been,” she said.

Of course, there’s no way of knowing what life would have looked like had Bosco not been injured back in that summer of 2021. She may have won a new set of medals in Tokyo and continued right on her way to all the success she’s enjoyed these past two years.

She’s not so sure.

Buoyed by a strong support network, Bosco came out of her six-month physical rehabilitation process “at a level that I know I was not at” prior to the injuries. Those around her have continued pushing her to be better each day, she said, and perhaps the most surprising part of this whole journey was realizing just how much she had been capable of all along.

“I could have been even stronger and even better as a cyclist before the injury,” Bosco said.

She’s here now, though, and as she rides toward the Paralympic Games Paris 2024, she’s hoping to be an example what can be done in the face of adversity.

“Be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” said Bosco, “and keep dreaming big no matter what happens.”