Skyler Samuelson Espinoza exults after she and tandem cyclist teammate Hannah Chadwick complete a race at the 2023 Parapan American Games. Photo by Pablo Bigorra/Parapanamericanos via Photosport

Skyler Samuelson Espinoza never got into organized sports while growing up in Freeport, but she always thought of herself as an athlete.

“We did all the outdoor things – hockey, skating, riding bikes, hiking,” Espinoza, 30, said. “My brothers played baseball, but we were not a huge organized sports family.”

A rower turned cyclist after back issues forced her out of the boat six years ago, Espinoza has enjoyed a series of twists and turns on the bike.

Her latest accomplishment? A trip to Paris for the Paralympics as a para-cyclist for Team USA.

Espinoza, the niece of 1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, is a co-rider, or a pilot, for visually impaired para-cyclist Hannah Chadwick.

“Even making the Team USA roster is a huge athletic accomplishment, so I want to make sure we enjoy the Games’ experience as well as focus on racing,” Espinoza said, adding with a laugh: “And I’m excited about the free stuff. All the gear. I want the swag.”

Espinoza and Chadwick, 32, of El Cerrito, California, will compete in the 1,000-meter time trials on Aug. 30 and then the 3,000-meter individual pursuit two days later. About 4,400 athletes from around the world will compete in 22 sports from Aug. 28-Sept. 8 at the same sites just used by Olympians at the Paris Games. Espinoza is one of two Mainers who will represent Team USA in the Paralympics.

Clara Brown, of Falmouth, will compete in road cycling events in Paris.

Para-tandem cycling allows a visually impaired rider like Chadwick, who was born blind, to compete with a non-disabled rider who steers the bike. Chadwick, in the rear seat, is referred to as the stoker, as in adding fuel or stoking a fire.

“I had never ridden a tandem bike before I’d ridden with Hannah,” said Espinoza, who lives in Menlo Park, California with her husband, Nico, and their greyhound, Galleta. “It made my job easier that she’s an experienced stoker.”

Espinoza picked up rowing while at Barnard College in New York City. She wondered if she could compete on a global stage.

But then came the back issues, which required surgery in the spring of 2018, a year after she graduated from Barnard. She started cycling in earnest that fall. She quickly rose through the national ranks of track cyclists and was later asked if she would consider becoming a co-rider for a visually impaired para-cyclist.

Espinoza and Chadwick became teammates in February 2023, when Espinoza attended a para-cycling training camp.

“We liked it and personality-wise it was a good fit,” Espinoza said. “It just feels like value-wise and experience-wise it’s been a good fit.”

Tandem cyclists need to be in sync with their pedaling for the team to succeed.

Espinoza said her rowing experience, both as a competitor in two-person lightweight boats and as an assistant coach at Stanford from 2019-21, helped her understand the nuances of “teamwork in a small team.”

Hannah Chadwick with guide Skyler Samuelson Espinoza compete at the 2023 Parapan American Games, where they won both the 1,000-meter time trials and the 3,000-meter individual pursuit. Joe Kusumoto/USOPC

On Aug. 30, they will race in the 1,000-meter time trial on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, a 50-minute train ride from the center of Paris and not far from the Palace of Versailles. Two days later they will compete in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit, where two teams start on opposite sides of the track and try to post a fast qualifying time – and maybe even catch the other team.

Espinoza and Chadwick won both those events at the 2023 Parapan American Games. They also have won bronze medals in sprint events at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships.

Chadwick, who went to her first tandem cycling camp in 2019, said she and Espinoza can come home with some Paralympic hardware.

“We know the athletes that we’re going against and we’ve raced against them, too,” she said. “Obviously, a medal is always the goal but we’ve also worked really hard toward this goal and we want to enjoy the journey.”

If that happens, Espinoza will be the second member of her extended family to have Olympic or Paralympic hardware. Joan Benoit Samuelson’s husband Scott Samuelson and Espinoza’s father Nord are brothers.

“I remember seeing (Benoit Samuelson’s) gold medal. Classic Joanie, it was in a kitchen drawer. She was like, ‘I have to find this old thing,’ ” Espinoza said.

With both families living in Freeport, Espinoza said she saw her aunt and uncle often.

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve talked to Joanie a little more. She was very excited for us. It’s special to have her in my corner,” Espinoza said.

Added Samuelson: “She is a very good athlete and I remember watching her compete for the first time at a 5K (road race) and I was wowed way back then. She must have been only 8, 9 years old. She grew up with three brothers like I did.”

Freeport native Skyler Samuelson Espinoza, right, and her tandem cycling teammate Hannah Chadwick will compete in two events in the Paris velodrome at the 2024 Paralympic Games. Photo courtesy of Skyler Samuelson Espinoza

Espinoza competed in cross country, Nordic skiing and Ultimate Frisbee at Maine Coast Waldorf in Freeport, where she graduated in 2013. In high school, she ran a couple of marathons with her father.

But it wasn’t until her sophomore year at Barnard, an official college of Columbia University, that she found rowing. Only 5 feet, 2 inches tall and then about 120 pounds, she was at a distinct disadvantage since Columbia did not have a lightweight rowing team.

“I competed and I was in the second varsity eight by my senior year,” Espinoza said.

With a year of eligibility left, Espinoza went to Stanford for graduate studies as well as to compete on the women’s lightweight team. It was when her Olympic goals crystallized.

“That’s when I started to think, I definitely want to take a shot at that. I am definitely among the top strongest lightweights in the U.S. but basically there are only two spots every four years,” Espinoza said.

In 2018, plans changed. “Unfortunately I had to have back surgery in the spring,” she said.

She began cycling in the fall of 2018 and focused on track cycling from 2020-2022, getting a couple of call-ups to Team USA cycling camps in Colorado Springs and Los Angeles.

That led to Espinoza attending a Team USA camp in February 2023, where she met Chadwick. Six months later, the tandem was at the World Championships in Scotland, placing fifth in the 1,000-meter time trial and third in the sprint.

Eighteen months later, they’re ready to compete in Paris.