Allison Beveridge was first drawn to cycling because she wanted to follow in her two older sisters’ tire tracks. When they began training at Cycling Centre Calgary, the then 14-year-old Beveridge swapped swimming laps in the pool for racing around on two wheels.
By Grade 11, she was on the national team.
In the years that followed, she competed around the world. In addition to the bronze medal she earned at Rio in 2016 — her first Olympic Games — she won countless medals as part of Team Canada at the Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games and more.
After 12 years as a professional athlete, the two-time Olympian retired from cycling in 2021 to focus on a new challenge — graduate school. Beveridge traded in the world of professional cycling for the physiotherapy clinic, and graduates today with her master’s in physical therapy from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’s satellite program in Calgary.
The decision to step away from pro sports wasn’t an easy one. While earning her undergraduate degree in kinesiology, Beveridge experienced the best of both worlds, balancing the demands of elite athletics and academics. As that degree was coming to a close, though, her late mentor, sport scientist Louis Passfield, encouraged her to evaluate what she truly wanted to pursue next.
“He was the one who really kind of pushed me to figure out what I would enjoy in life, how to approach things differently,” says Beveridge. “He definitely shaped the way I think about things.”
In her late 20s at the time, Beveridge could easily have continued to compete for several more years. Over the course of many discussions with Passfield, however, she realized she was being pulled in another direction.
“I had a lot of conversations with Louis where he said, ‘What are your priorities in life at the moment?’ Cycling was still a priority but it wasn’t my top priority anymore — there were other things I wanted in life.”
“You’re almost starting over”
As Beveridge acknowledges, being an elite athlete involves existing in a bubble of sorts, entirely focused on training to optimize your performance in each race, on developing your skills. Behind the handlebars, her confidence was unshakeable. A physiotherapy degree would be an exciting new opportunity but it would also require the decorated athlete to feel like a rookie for the first time in more than a decade.
“You’re almost starting over. You’re back at the baseline. It’s a hard thing confidence-wise, and you feel quite disconnected from your previous world,” says Beveridge.
“It took a lot to step away from cycling,” she adds, “but physio gave me something to move towards. I’m grateful for that.”
Though she was learning a whole new skill set, the setting wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Beveridge had spent countless hours in physiotherapy clinics over the years, rehabbing her various sports-related injuries and ailments, including one that almost ended her athletic career.
The same week Beveridge found out she and her teammates would be going to Rio to compete, she had some swelling in her left arm during a road race. “It was actually a physiotherapist who strongly encouraged me to go to the emergency room,” she says.
Gaining a patient’s perspective
She had developed a 15 centimetre blood clot in her left arm due to vascular and was immediately put on blood thinners. The medication came with a level of medical risk — a crash could have been disastrous — but Beveridge was determined to represent her country.
Once her bronze medal was securely in hand, she went off the blood thinners and began the recovery process, which included months without cycling, a rib resection surgery and a vein angioplasty.
The entire situation gave her a perspective she brings with her into the physiotherapy clinic every day.
“I think it gives you a lot more empathy for the patient in the moment, and how much the person matters in the situation — what their risk tolerance is, what they ultimately want to achieve,” she says.
Beveridge had a range of student placements during her graduate studies, including in neurological rehabilitation and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, as well as acute hand therapy and upper extremity rehabilitation. It was the latter that piqued her interest, given her own experiences and injuries.
“Despite being a cyclist, most of my injuries have been upper-body injuries. I have kind of a soft spot for upper extremity injuries and trying to figure out how they work.”
She still maintains a connection to cycling as a competitive development coach with Cycling Canada, drawing on her varied expertise to help young female athletes thrive.
“I feel there’s still a gap for a lot of females in terms of being able to reach their potential and find their success in sport,” says Beveridge. “Having the opportunity to work with them, to try and balance what I learned the hard way, it’s nice to be connected and to use different aspects of my previous degree.”
That desire and ability to push herself to her limits, which got her to the Olympic podium, hasn’t faded. In her free time, when she’s not seeing patients at the clinic, Beveridge has taken up marathon running.
“There’s that need to be able to test yourself a little bit.”