Tim Williams broke his neck playing rugby as a 19-year-old, the injury that left him a quadriplegic a result of a scrum incident.
His first foray back into top sport was in wheelchair rugby in 1996, a year after the accident. In 1997 he made the WheelBlacks and in 1998 travelled with the team to win silver at the Wheelchair Rugby World Cup in Toronto, Canada.
His path to a gold medal in the Men's H1 Time Trial at this year's Paracycling Road World Championships in South Carolina, USA, began in 2004 when he took up hand-cycling.
In a blog he said of how quickly he took to the sport. "I borrowed a mate's hand-cycle and joined a local cycling club. I did a couple of races that April and proudly won the 10km time trial! What a buzz. Hand-cycling had far-reaching positive effects on my life, it allowed me to be competitive but more importantly it allowed me to be more active and independent with my family.
"In April 2013 I had great success at the NZ Club road nationals in Queenstown, winning the 14km time trial and coming second in the road race."
