A Saving Grace

A Saving Grace unmasks the personal, sporting and the inspirational life behind the cycling world champion and Paralympic medallist.

Written off as lacking concentration, a dreamer and too slow as a school kid, the young Rik at the age of just 14 became hooked on cycling after watching a stage of the Tour de France during a lesson at school. Rik soon found that his day-to-day mobility obstacles would instantly disappear each time he climbed onto a bike, leaving him free of his disability.

Rik has become not just a sporting hero but also an inspirational figure to many. After more than a decade of competing at a professional level in the elite world of Paralympic cycling, Rik became involved in the education system as an inspirational role model where the challenges and pressures faced by young people of today not just socially but also academically were at the forefront of his next life chapter.

Having the mind-set of a champion athlete and carrying the ‘never give up determination’, Rik found a new passion in helping others only to be engulfed with mental health issues due to the frustration of the education system and students being neglected with harrowing events.

In A Saving Grace, Rik takes us on his exhilarating no-holds-barred journey and mayhem of not just his professional sporting career but also his inspirational work with the twists and turns that have imposed life-changing consequences.

Born and raised in the suburbs of Chester, Rik Waddon found a passion for sports, which in turn gifted him the escape from the stigma of having a disability that followed him around as a young child. Now over three decades on from a road traffic accident at just five years of age that saw him knocked off a bike, he revels in his achievements of being a World Champion and Double Paralympic Cycling medalist. Rik has no plans on retirement just yet as he has unfinished business at the Paralympic Games with sights set on Tokyo’s 2020 Games.