Hi, my name is Jordan and I'm fundraising for Maarten Duif to travel to international competitions in Paracyling.

Maarten Duif is a paracyclist who competes at the H1 level. He rode for Team Ontario in the Canadian National Championships in 2023 and 2024, coming home with 2 gold medals in both the Time Trial and Road Race both years. He also competed at his first World Championships in May, earning 5th place in Time Trial, 4th in Road Race.

Training with a Team Canada Coach, Maarten is heading to the UCI World Championships this September to represent Canada on the international stage. 10 hours of his week are dedicated to on-bike training time, plus hours cross-training, alongside his full-time career.

Your help in supporting Maarten in his paracycling career would be greatly appreciated.

Being highly competitive in any sport comes with many costs. When you have a spinal cord injury the costs are even higher. The high-end competitive roadbike market is already very expensive, and specialized adaptive equipment needed by para athletes is double to triple this cost. In order to be competitive in his field, Maarten needs to upgrade to a customized carbon handcycle. Due to his quadriplegia, every cycling event requires an attendant to fly or travel with Maarten to assist with luggage, transportation, bike assembly/maintenance, and on-site event support.

Maarten got injured in a diving accident in July, 2002, when he lost his footing and could not right himself in time before landing head first in the water, hitting the bottom. He immediately knew he was paralyzed and told his friends his neck was broken and to keep him stabilized in the water while they called an ambulance. He was just 17 years old.

He fractured and displaced his C5-C6 vertebrae. His neurosurgeon would tell him it was one of the worst injuries he had seen. After recovering from the initial surgery and spinal shock, he spent half a year in a spinal cord injury rehabilitation centre, learning how to maximize his function with the resulting quadriplegia. He went home in a power chair. His schooling was delayed, and he ended up having to catch up to graduate from Listowel District Secondary School, along with learning to live with his new injury. His family and friends were an enormous support to him getting through those first few years as he adapted to his new body. Maarten has always had an incredible attitude, and extremely sunny disposition – he has always said “how can I make that work for me” with any challenges that come his way. We have yet to hear him complain.

Maarten went to Guelph University and graduated with a Commerce degree. Stubbornly, he was tired of using a power chair and worked very hard to become strong and adept at using a manual chair. This is when his renewed interest in sports began. He played wheelchair rugby for quite a few years, and travelled across North America for tournaments. After relocation to Ottawa for work in 2016 he started doing 10-20 km “pushes” along the Canal to build his cardio.

He bought his first handcycle in the Fall of 2018, and in the Spring of 2019, kicked off his first season with the CN Cycle for CHEO. Casual rides got increasingly faster and longer, upgrading to his first racing bike in 2020. During the pandemic his time was mostly occupied with being outdoors and cycling the Parkway in the National Capital Region, even bribing the kids with ice cream to complete 20 km rides. All this time on bike really allowed him to build up his strength and endurance. Lucky for him, his wife is an avid cyclist and his support rider on 50km and 70 km training rides and even for time trials in National Championships.

Biking with just your arms is already impressive, but his C5-C6 injury means he has four functional muscles in his shoulders and arms – trapezius, deltoids, biceps, and brachioradialis – with no hand function his hands are strapped directly to his cranks. While handcycling requires both a push and pull motion, Maarten only has pull motion due to his spinal cord injury level, decreasing maximum power output by half in each pedal stroke.

He started his first races in 2022, and in just a few short years he is heading to international competition, which in itself is incredible. He works very hard, and he would never dream of asking for financial help. That's why we're asking for him.

If you wish to support him on his road to international competition, please consider donating. Any funds raised will go directly to the costs of equipment, accommodations, flights and travel. Thank you so much!