Over two weeks after a bad crash in the Rendition Homes Cup event at Victoria Park left her with serious head injuries, 2010 Australian time trial champion Amber Halliday is making solid progress and will soon be able to leave hospital.
The 31 year old has been in the Royal Adelaide after her heavy fall in a Women's Cup race at Victoria Park on January 17th. It is thought that she clipped the wheel of another rider. She landed on her face and suffered bleeding and bruising to her brain and facial fractures.
According to an update by Cycling South Australia’s executive manager Max Stevens, she is making good progress. “I'm no doctor but what I witnessed yesterday, before Amber fell asleep, was a young women who has been to the edge and is now back, a strong person who knows what's ahead,” he wrote.
He said that a decision was due to be made this week as to where she would undergo her rehabilitation program.
Stevens visited her on Tuesday, along with Cycling SA board member Rob Alvaro. He said that he went there with plenty of trepidation, but was pleasantly surprised. “Amber was in great spirits, joking, laughing, smiling and doing all the right things. She has walked a little without assistance too,” he said. “It was a remarkable experience for us yesterday to just see how far this woman has come. No illusions here, Amber still has a long way to go and we expect her recovery and rehabilitation to be long. Amber can hold brief conversations, but does drift and needs as much sleep as possible.”
However he is encouraged by how she is doing, and like many will hope that she can make a strong recovery.
Halliday is a former multiple world champion rower who competed in the Olympics in 2008, then took up cycling in the same year. She immediately thrived, taking the Amy Gillett Scholarship the following year and then landing the Australian TT championship in 2010.