Beau Wootton (cycling) will make his first appearance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Born with the genetic condition optic atrophy that interferes with messages from the eye to the brain, Beau had never thought about tandem cycling until he was paired with Mike Hoile, captain of the Black Chrome cycling team, and they won the national men’s road title. It was part of the Tandem Project, the brainchild of the late Kieran Modra, who thought that if more pilot riders could be found and trained, then more paras riders would be convinced to take up the event. Wootton was named as part of the Para-cycling group for AusCycling Podium Potential Academy in early 2022 and won gold in the tandem time trial and silver in the sprint at this year’s track nationals.