Inked on her right arm, the words ‘Dream Believe Achieve’ perfectly encapsulate Shellharbour resident Lily Piccolo’s journey into the world of para-athletics.
A rare eye condition diagnosed in her 20s later rendered Lily legally blind and set her on a path into the elite sporting world where she has achieved milestones on the national and world stage that she'd never imagined possible.
The paracyclist has just been crowned Oceania WB Champion after she and pilot Kelly Wright took out double gold – in the time trial and road race held in Brisbane in mid-April. Quite a feat considering Lily and Kelly had never raced together before and Lily was riding her own new tandem bike – Ruby Tuesday – rather than a loan bike.
“It was a pinch myself moment,” Lily says. “12 months ago I could never have imagined the words Oceania WB Champion coming out of my mouth, but here I am!”
It all started when she was 24. Fresh out of university, ready to take on the world and begin a teaching career, what Lily thought was night blindness was diagnosed as a rare degenerative retinal disease called Retinitis pigmentosa – that first takes the peripheral vision.
“An ophthalmologist explained it as having a spelling error in a strand of my DNA,” Lily says.
A visit to a leading eye specialist revealed the disease was in its early stages so the advice was “to go away and live life. Start making memories. Come back in five years and see how things have progressed.”
And that’s exactly what she did, living a full life as a teacher, wife, and mother for 10 years while the disease remained stable. But then, Lily’s vision deteriorated further, and she was declared legally blind. Currently, Lily has less than 10 percent of central vision remaining, compared to the 180 degrees she once had – she describes her vision now as tunnel vision.
Lily is a fighter though and Retinitis pigmentosa hasn't stopped her, but it has forced her to navigate life in a different way. Since her teaching days, Lily has gone on to work for Vision Australia, supporting adults and children living with vision loss. Lily was eventually paired with a guide dog called Tilly who has helped her maintain her independence.
Her athletic journey started during Covid. As many of us did, Lily walked a lot during Covid with Tilly and Asher her Husky, as she worked to improve her overall health. Around this time, she discovered Exsight Tandems, an organisation in Illawarra that pairs able-bodied cyclists with vision-impaired cyclists so they can ride a bike for exercise. The tandem rides were ideal for Lily, and she thrived in this environment. She was asked to help Jay Gaffey, a triathlete who had been asked to guide a visually impaired triathlete and needed some practice. By the end of that first ride, Lily and Jay had chatted, laughed, and connected, so it wasn’t too difficult for Jay to convince Lily to start triathlon training.
Lily entered the Wollongong triathlon and completed her first cycling race, a time trial, in Randwick, with Jay. Lily says a pivotal moment for her was when, after the race, a paralympic cyclist called out “See you at nationals, ladies!" to her and Jay. Lily says she was stunned, her journey had only just started, and she was being encouraged to train for nationals. She decided to stop work for 12 months to give this new challenge a go. She organised a dedicated cycling coach, a personal trainer, and a nutritionist.
“I surrounded myself with an incredible support network of people including those from the Kiama Triathlon Club.”
A loan bike was arranged, and she set about training.
She rides outdoors with Jay twice a week, has numerous gym sessions and swims in the river or pool on her recovery day.
“I had to learn how to train like an athlete, eat like an athlete and behave like an athlete. I changed my mind, body and spirit and most importantly I worked on my mindset so when I had tough days I would use ‘self-talk’ to get me through it.”
State Championships were the first hurdle, Lily trained hard and in July 2023 she was crowned state champion.
The jump to being selected to compete in Nationals and the Para-cycling Road World Cup was mammoth, but one that Lily managed to do with ease. After competing in the National Championships in January this year and receiving a bronze medal in the 21km time trial race and 4th in the road race, Lily and Jay went on to tackle the best in the world at the Para-Cycling Road World Cup in Adelaide that same month. They came fourth in the time trial, narrowly missing a podium position. Lily says she cannot thank Jay enough as she would not have been able to achieve any of it without her.
Lily says her ultimate goal is to be crowned Australian Champion in the time trial at the National Road Championships in Perth in January 2025.
