HBF Ambassador, Paralympian and speaker Brant Garvey is training 26 hours a week to secure his spot in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
About five years ago he was “that guy who hated cardio”, hiding behind a desk and achieving little.
Now cardio is his livelihood.
He will share his powerful story at the CCI-HBF Wellness for Business Conference of how he hit the wall a few years ago, redefined his purpose in 2013 and then competed in the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Prior to 2013, Garvey says he worked for various companies “very much doing the least amount possible to get by and probably not get noticed”, he says.
Then something in his head changed. He questioned his purpose and wondered what he could do that no one thought possible for an above knee amputee.
“I started these small goals, they built momentum and then I went bigger and crazier,” he says.
Within three year’s he’d broken all the ‘you can’t do that’ rules. He’d become the first Australian above knee amputee to compete in an ironman triathlon, setting a world record in the process, and the first Australian Paratriathlete to compete in a Paralympics.
“I was born as an amputee, grew up with one leg and then had a mental shift in 2013, where I challenged some of the ideas of what I and others thought was possible as a above knee amputee,” he says.
“It’s been an interesting journey and one of the things I’ve had to do is to stop and take a look back at what I’ve done in a short time and appreciate it, because otherwise you just keep moving forward and you forget about it.”
“I will talk about the whole principal of what you do next matters most.”
Here’s a man who spends 26 hours a week training in 16 sessions, travels the world to maintain rankings (he’s just back from Japan where he recorded a sixth in the World Championships), has a new baby and runs a business.
When asked what it takes to keep up with the gruelling pace, the answer is simple.
“So much cardio,” he laughs.
And true to his principal that it’s what you do next that counts, getting to Tokyo will not be the end of the journey for this elite athlete.
“No there’s always little avenues,” he says.
“The business side of what I do is really fascinating so I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make that work and there will always be some other crazy, more bizarre adventure that I’ll be able to go on.
“Surfing is one thing I want to do but for now everything gets focused around Tokyo.
Aren’t there too many sharks for surfing: “I feel like I’m immune because I was already born with one leg, so if I’m one legged I can’t get attacked by a shark,” he laughs.
► Hear more from Brant Garvey and other industry experts at CCI’s Wellness for Business Conference being held next Thursday, 7 June.
