Anna Taylor: "I'm someone who just functions better when I’m busy."
Suzanne McFadden for LockerRoom
Keeping still is Anna Taylor’s toughest challenge.
Exactly a year ago, Taylor rode a blistering 3000m on the St Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in Paris to win her first Paralympic medal – silver, in the C4 individual pursuit. Now 30 weeks pregnant, the 34-year-old is still getting her head around having to slow down.
“I’m someone who just functions better when I’m busy. I’ve always been busy,” says Taylor, who was a youth mental health worker before completing her master’s degree in 2023 and then throwing herself fully into training for the Paris games.
“Last summer, I was coaching rowing for St Paul’s Collegiate, which was great because I had a really strict schedule,” she says.
“But honestly, I lose my mind – when I hurt my back [a severe disc prolapse, causing her spinal cord injury] my mum said I was a nightmare to be around.”
Fortunately for her family – and her partner Frans van der Merwe – Taylor has something to keep her mind active while she rests her changing body. And it’s work that ties her life as an athlete, her studies in public health and her own experiences within New Zealand’s health system.
Through a Prime Minister’s scholarship, Taylor has an internship with ACC, working on the Balanced Female Health project.
The project, with Sport New Zealand, aims to address the gap in information and education around young women’s needs in sport and physical activity – and keeping them active.
“I have a lot of skills and expertise that I can bring to the table,” says Taylor, who got a degree in public health while on a rowing scholarship at Oregon State University, followed by her master’s in sports and fitness administration/management at Massey University.
“The more I’m learning in this job, the more I’m like, ‘This is right up my alley’. It’s all about public health – learning what injuries women have, how they’re happening, where they’re happening and how much it costs. If you’re going to put in an intervention, how do you know it will work? It’s fascinating.”
Taylor’s experience as an expectant mum adds another layer to her role, says ACC injury prevention leader Kirsten Malpas.
“Her pregnancy brings another element: how do we support females to be healthy through their life course – which for many also includes pregnancy – and how do we bring them back to sport and recreation in a safe way that’s mindful of what’s happened with their bodies?”
And Taylor has every intention of returning to elite sport after the birth of her son, who’s due in October.
“Some people are lucky enough to find their soulmate when they’re 25 … I was 32,” Taylor says.
The 2023 world champion met her fiancé, van der Merwe, through online dating – “a classic love story”, she says with a laugh.
“But what’s really funny is that we have so many mutual contacts. Frans is a senior lecturer at Wintec, teaching rehab, physio and strength conditioning. He’s taken over my strength and conditioning through the pregnancy and afterwards,” she says.
“He’s a beautiful man. The baby loves him too – every time he talks to my belly, Baby Boy kicks.”
The couple had always planned to start a family about now: “It was a blessing how quickly we were able to get pregnant,” Taylor says. “The goal is to have a baby and then I can get back on the start-line for LA.” That’s the Los Angeles Paralympics in 2028 – which would be her third Paralympic Games.
She’s grateful to have another Paris silver medallist, Olympic track sprinter Rebecca Petch, on the same track – she’s also expecting her first child in October.
The pair have been able to compare notes on their pregnancies, while keeping an eye on returning to the highest level of sport.
Taylor has also been speaking to Olympic rower Lucy Spoors, who won gold in Paris 20 months after her son, Rupert, was born.
“It’s great other female athletes have paved the way for us,” she says.
“I definitely want to come back. Last week, I had four days off [exercise] in a row and I was getting antsy.”
Cycling NZ’s lead Para cycling coach Brendon Cameron has been working with Taylor to draw up a “pretty comprehensive” training plan leading up to and after the baby’s arrival.
“Anna just doesn’t want to start and participate; she wants to return to the podium. So we’ve had to model what this could look like and build in steeping stone events over the next two-and-a-half years,” he says. “The biggest gains are likely to be made in the final 12 months.
“The times and dates look a bit daunting, but at least we have them on the table and we’ve broken down how these can be achieved in small bite sizes.
“Part of the early goals were for Anna to be fit, strong and healthy, and then the training fell out from there. We’ve made sure she’s still been part of the team, programming her erg sessions during the team’s track sessions to keep the social connection.”
Taylor’s sporting career has been plagued by serious illness and injury – thyroid cancer at 19, her cauda equina spinal injury at 25 (she woke one morning in severe pain after a disc suddenly prolapsed), then a major concussion and long Covid in more recent years as a Para cyclist.
But she’s enjoyed relatively good health through her pregnancy. “The first trimester I was able to power through. The only issue I had was as my belly started growing, I had to learn to let go of my abs and relax my core,” she says.
She’s been continuing to go to the gym and riding her road bike in recent weeks. “For my own sanity and physical capabilities, I need to keep moving and I need to keep strong. Training is part of my life.”
Taylor had been looking ahead to a future after competitive cycling when the internship came up.
“I’ve been out of the traditional workforce for three years now, and it’s really hard to get in the door without starting at the bottom again,” she says.
“I try to keep in touch through the governance spaces I work in and volunteer work, but it’s not the same as paid employment. It’s that actual experience employers want to see.”
She represents the athlete voice on the athletes’ councils of Cycling NZ and Paralympics NZ, and she’s on the board of the Athlete Leaders Network.
The internship through the PM’s scholarship gave her a way to get her foot in the door. Each year, High Performance Sport NZ offers 10 athletes paid internships through the programme.
HPSNZ performance life coach Hannah McLean helped Taylor secure a role that made use of her degrees and kept her connected to sport. They approached ACC, which was developing a female athlete health project with Sport NZ.
“The internship was an ideal opportunity to provide Anna with the workplace experience she was after, using her sporting experience, skills and expertise,” McLean says. “And ultimately have input into how female athlete health support evolves for the better in New Zealand.”
Kirsten Malpas says the project aims to support all women, whether they’re involved in community sport or high performance.
“So much research particularly in sport medicine has been done on men,” she says. “And that’s just been adjusted – or just assumed – it applies to women.
“We’re finding out there are so many differences that need to be factored into how women train, from girls right through to women. So how do we set them up to sustain their participation and being physically active, and not have them bow out through injury or a negative experience?
“How do we support the sport and recreation system to help females enjoy participating right through life?”
Taylor’s passion for sport, public health and the female athlete health made her ideal for the internship, Malpas says.
“Then there’s the added bonus of her being in the high performance system, having been a rower and now a Paralympic cyclist, so she’s got quite a few strings to her bow. And she’s experienced going through the ACC system,” she says.
Taylor works 10 hours a week from her home in Cambridge, and plans to continue until October.
“When she’s had the baby, and comes up for air, we hope she will knock on our door,” Malpas says. “We’ve still got things she can be involved in.”
Taylor hopes her experience as a new mum will help guide the Balanced Female Health project, helping other women stay active during and after pregnancy – an area that needs more support and understanding.
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.