For the first time in its 19-year history, Tulsa Tough opened the starting line to para-cyclists.

Gabrielle Platt was one of them.

“I’ve pretty much been riding bikes since 2014,” Platt said. “Then I started racing in 2016.”

Her road to the sport wasn’t typical. In 2011, Platt was shot three times and left in a ditch. She’s used a wheelchair ever since.

“It’s a day at a time. A step at a time,” she said. “Having goals that I want to accomplish and just kind of going after those goals.”

Her first exposure to adaptive sports came through wheelchair basketball at The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges in Tulsa. A year later, she discovered handcycling.

“I was riding once a week out at the River Parks,” she said. “Then I decided I was good enough to go to nationals.”

That d

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