The phrase ‘making the most of a bad situation’ could have been coined for Callum Deboys.
Losing a leg following a motorbike accident as a 21 year-old could have defined his life but instead the then trainee chef used the long road back to recovery as the starting point for him to go on and achieve greatness in ways he could never have thought possible. It is an inspirational tale.
The visit of paralympic skier Scott Meenagh during Deboys’ long hospital convalescence sparked a conversation and planted a seed. His rehabilitation programme saw him try cross-country skiing and from there it became his new passion and obsession. Less than five years after that terrible road accident, Deboys was representing Team GB at the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing.
There would be a further brush with adversity for the man from the Ayrshire village of Kirkmichael when he lost his funding and couldn’t continue in winter sports. Again, though, he spotted it as an opportunity rather than a crisis, ditching the skis for a bike where he has again quickly progressed through the ranks with both Scottish and British Cycling.
The 28-year-old is now setting his sights on representing Team Scotland for the first time after eight para-cycling events were included in next year’s Commonwealth Games. As a regular visitor to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the thought of returning there to represent his country is serving as powerful motivation.
“It’s going to be a huge target for me next year,” said the C2 rider. “I'm hungry for it. I'm ready to go. I didn't think I’d be able to get an opportunity to race at a Commie Games but now that the para events have been included, it's a real exciting prospect.
“I absolutely love the velodrome. It’s just a good opportunity to get on track and brush elbows with people when you're racing. It's all very close. I train there twice a week with Scottish Cycling. We have a really good programme here and there are loads of opportunities within Scotland to get on track. I also race track league on Friday night and then we'll have different competitions throughout the year.
“I'm pretty much at the velodrome every single week. As a Scottish athlete, we’re incredibly lucky and incredibly fortunate that we have this venue here. And for it to be hosting the Commie Games is a real opportunity. Obviously getting to the Paralympics is such a huge achievement but getting to represent Scotland would be a real honour.”
Deboys was still focusing on skiing rather than cycling as the previous Commonwealth Games unfolded in 2022 but he has repeatedly shown himself capable of adapting quickly to new challenges.
“Moving from snow sports, my original sport was all upper body so now it's changed to all lower body,” he revealed “I've pretty much had to throw my training in a full 180. But it’s a really exciting opportunity to change sports and have different experiences.
“I'm fully committed to cycling now. At the moment I'm on the British Cycling Foundation squad so I can't go full-time cycling just yet. I still have to work alongside training so it's a real challenge to balance everything. But I am 100% in on cycling.”
Cycling had been a part of Deboys’ life growing up but it was only after the accident that he started to take it more seriously.
“I’ve always cycled but it wasn't really until after my accident, until I lost my leg, that I started cycling properly,” he adds. “I cycled all the way through my skiing career just as a way of cross-training.
“I've always wanted to explore cycling a little bit more. But because skiing is so intense and we were away for the majority of the year, it wasn't really doable until we lost our funding after Beijing. And then I saw this opportunity and grabbed it with both hands.
“I do a combination of road and track. As a para-athlete, you can aim to be a jack of all trades, master of them all.”
Deboys’ dark humour and ability to see the positive in any situation extends to cycling with only one leg.
“Not having my left leg going around left corners, I don't have a problem with pedal strike or hitting my crank off the ground, so I can batter my bike in at left corners,” he reveals. “I raced in Edinburgh one time and pretty much dropped a full able-bodied field on every single left-hand corner just because I can keep pedalling around it and they couldn’t.”
The former Trump Turnberry pastry chef made further headlines a few years ago when he got the chance to impress Gordon Ramsay with his skills on his TV series Next Level Chef. But Deboys says he’s finished with cooking for now.
“I hung up my apron a few years ago,” he reveals. “That ship has sailed. I actually work in NHS as an admin in A&E. Again, it's a job sitting down. It's a bit high stress sometimes, but it keeps me humble, keeps me hungry. It's a good thing just to keep me going.”
It is cycling – and the prospect of becoming a two-sport Paralympian in Los Angeles in 2028 – that is his main driver, however.
“Absolutely. That is the big goal. That's why we're here. I just need to keep the head down, keep working, keep pushing. We'll get there eventually.”
