Help Kristin Cycle Her Way to the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo

Kristin and Liesel take first place in the 75km road race, Augusta, GA. Zoe proudly looks up at them as they stand on the first place podium with their medals. 

My name is Kristin Fleschner, I am a passionate athlete, lawyer and disability advocate.

I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes at the age of 13. When I was 25 I received a pancreas transplant which treated my type one diabetes, but, unfortunately, caused other unexpected effects. One of those was vision loss. Since then, I've had countless surgeries and well over one hundred painful eye injections. But, I learned that challenges are opportunities in disguise. Exercise was always important to me and I quickly learned to run with a guide and cycle on a tandem and, during my final year at Harvard Law School, I ran the Boston Marathon.

Cycling has always been my love and during the past two years I had the chance to train at the Olympic Training Center with other blind athletes at a cycling camp. Working with an amazing pilot, Liesel McAllister, we went on to compete in the 2018 Para Road National Championships taking gold in the road race and silver in the time trial. I have competed in several other races in the past year. My goal is to compete with Team USA in the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.

Competing at this level takes a lot of dedication and it must be treated as a full time job. But, cycling competitively is an expensive sport, the right bicycle and wheels can shave seconds off your time. Travel to and from races is just one of the myriad of prohibitive costs. As a blind athlete this is doubly expensive. I need to cover some of these costs for not only myself, but also for my pilot. We also have twice as much gear to purchase. 

Between now and Tokyo 2020 I'm asking you to be part of my team. Every little bit helps, we have regular monthly expenses from my Peloton training subscription to my Seeing Eye Dog, Zoe’s, marrow bones, expenses around each qualifying race we attend and critical one offs. We promise if you join this team if will be an awesome ride! I see sports diplomacy as a powerful tool for the advocacy work I am already doing.

To learn more about my work please visit my webpage www.kristinfleschner.com. Join#ZoesPack to learn about living with blindness through the work of my guide dog, Zoe. #ZoesPack @ZoetheSeeingEyeDog on Facebook And Instagram. Through our pages Zoe and I answer hundreds of questions about blindness and, we have raised tens of thousands of dollars to sponsor guide dog placements.

Thank you for helping me realize my dreams and continue to demonstrate that it is always possible to turn challenges into opportunities.

With gratitude,

Kristin

Zoe, wearing her harness, sits just underneath an American Flag, Olympic rings and text signage for the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. To her right are huge blue letters spelling out TEAM USA.