Few sports stories are as remarkable as that which broke out of the Netherlands in late November.

On Nov. 22, the Rabobank professional women’s road cycling team, based in the Netherlands, added countrywoman Monique van der Vorst to their roster.

At first glance, this bit of information would not raise eyebrows outside of the cycling world. But when you consider that two years ago van der Vorst was competing in handcycling events with no use of her legs, Rabobank’s signing just may be the start of one of the greatest athletic transformations in sports history.

When van der Vorst was thirteen years old, she underwent corrective ankle surgery. Soon after, her legs swelled with fluid. “Gradually, the fluid went out of my legs,” she explained in an interview on velonation.com. “However, when that happened my leg was totally dead, paralysed. I could not move it, I could not feel anything. [ . . . ] I just couldn’t feel my leg anymore.”

It was around that time that van der Vorst started to take up the sport of handcycling. Handcycling is almost the same as able-bodied cycling, only that cyclists ride recumbent bicycles powered by their arms, instead of their legs. Soon, she became one of the best female handcyclists in the world. In 2004, she was the world champion in women’s road race. She repeated in 2007, adding a world title in the time trial that same year. She was one of the favourites in her events at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

But months before the Beijing Games, when van der Vorst was training in Florida, a car hit her. Partially paralysed before the accident, she sustained a spinal cord injury that left her with paralysis in both legs. She competed in a neck brace, and won two silver medals in Beijing.

“I don’t know how I did it, but I had focus and a goal,” she said to the Associated Press in 2010. “Willpower did it.”

In 2009, van der Vorst completed the Hawaii Ironman triathlon, the second female wheelchair athlete ever to do so. In March 2010, she was training in Mallorca, Spain when another cyclist hit her. While recovering from the accident in the Netherlands, van der Vorst felt something she hadn’t felt in years: her feet.

In the months after, she relearned to stand up. She started walking in November of that year. Soon she started to use a regular racing bicycle. She told velonation.com, “I did not really ride a bike outside, I just got my bike in March of this year. So, I’ve really been riding the bike for a short time. Since then, I’ve been training a lot — from May until now [November], I did almost 10,000 kilometres.”
Van der Vorst’s case has stunned doctors. Dr. John Ridwell, who specializes in spinal cord injuries but did not treat van der Vorst, said to the Associated Press, “About half of all people with spinal cord injuries have varying amounts of sensation after a period, but it is unusual to be able to walk again.”

While now ineligible for the 2012 London Paralympics, she plans to compete in road cycling in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The signing of van der Vorst to Rabobank is a huge step towards that goal.

Van der Vorst’s journey from wheelchair athlete to able-bodied athlete encapsulates one of the reasons people are interested in sports. This is a story of someone overcoming adversity to achieve what was thought to be impossible. There have been some great stories in the sports world in 2011, but this may be one of the best. And it is a story that has only just begun.