âPrestigiousâ para-cycling world championships coming to Huntsville

To put into perspective the significance of Monday’s announcement that the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships will take place in Huntsville in 2026, consider that the Rocket City’s preparation is already underway.

And, in fact, has been for more than a year.

Last year, Huntsville sent a team of representatives to Canada to observe and study the world cup taking place in Baie-Comeau in Quebec. And Erin Koshut, executive director of Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, is in Scotland this week checking out the world championships in Glasgow.

Still three years away and Huntsville is already wrapping the event in a bear hug.

The world championships are expected to bring about 600 athletes to Huntsville as well as their support staff and families for the races Sept. 4-7, 2026, at Cummings Research Park. The announcement comes on the heels of Huntsville hosting para-cycling events over Memorial Day weekend at research park the past three years.

Those athletes, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said, are “coming back for something much bigger.” The mayor described it as “prestigious” and said that the city will be hosting “a much larger event” than the recent world cups.

How do you define large? In Huntsville’s ongoing efforts to bolster its sports tourism industry, the para-cycling world cup in May had an economic impact of $2.4 million on the local economy, according to Madison County Commission Chair Mac McCutcheon. That impact came largely through the renting of 3,700 hotel rooms for that event.

The previous para-cycling world cup events have brought about 350 competitors to Huntsville – the translation being that the 2026 event – with its 600 competitors – will have an even larger jolt on the economy.

For Huntsville, there is the added bonus of prestige associated with hosting the world championships. Only once has the world championships taken place in the U.S. – in Greenville, S.C., in 2014.

“On behalf of the (U.S. Olympic para-cycling) and U.S. Paralympic cycling, we could not be more excited and honored to bring back the world championships to home soil here in the United States for the first time since 2014,” said Julie Dussliere, chief of Paralympics & internally managed sports at the U.S. Olympic & Paracycling Committee. “The timing of the 2026 event is even more important due to the importance for Team USA on the road to Los Angeles (for the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028).

“Athletes will be in their final two years of preparation for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, an event that is projected to be one of the most inclusive games in history. Paralympic cycling and Paralympic sport will be front and center in the United States between now and 2028. And we are excited to have Huntsville serve as a major stop on the road to Los Angeles.”

The previous para-cycling events in Huntsville served as a prelude to the world championships and confirmed for city leaders that this was an event they wanted to pursue.

“I’ve been involved in the sport of cycling for a long time,” said Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce. “And to be able to host the para-athletes just gives you an opportunity to showcase the power of the human spirit and just what these men and women are able to overcome to perform at this level. I don’t like the term able bodied versus non-able bodied because if you’re out there seeing what these men and women accomplish, they’re all able bodied in their own way. And they’re all very, very capable people.”

And some are veterans – a sweet spot for Huntsville as a city that prides itself on how it treats and cares for its veterans.

“Many of (the athletes) are veterans and to see them get out and compete, these are professional athletes. They work very hard and they train very hard. And to see them get out there and compete the way they compete, it’s very, very inspiring. There’s an old saying that sometimes when you’re given lemons, you turn around you make lemonade out of it. That’s exactly what’s going on when we look at events like this.

“They have taken some adversity, but yet they take that adversity and they move forward. And they excel in that. So I’m excited. And I’m also very inspired. And it’s very inspiring for community.”