After spending two years fighting a drug suspension, Jeff Adams was exonerated in May and managed to qualify for Beijing in less than six weeks. (J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

Wheelchair racer Jeff Adams knows that those who lead the race never win. He sits back in the pack, waiting for the best time to make his move. In the chaotic 1,500-metre race, he looks at a competitor, considering whether the flush on his face means he is tired, or getting ready to attack.

"There are literally millions of things happening, that you have to make decisions on in micro-seconds, in the 1,500," he says. "So, if you need that planned, calm, non-chaotic environment to function, then you fall apart in a race."

For Adams, life is just as chaotic. After spending two years fighting a drug suspension, the 13-time Paralympic gold medallist was exonerated in May and managed to qualify for Beijing in less than six weeks.

At 37, he looks as strong as he did the last time he competed at the Olympics. His appearance is striking, with his broad shoulders and fiery red hair cut into a mohawk. He has added to the tattoos on his arms in the past several years, with his left arm covered all the way to the wrist.

'The Last Gasp'

After such a late start to the season, Adams had only one chance to qualify. It was in a race that he put on himself, aptly named 'The Last Gasp'.

Adams rented a track in Atlanta, hired officials, and flew in his Canadian training partner Josh Cassidy and his South African rival Ernst van Dyk. Five days before the deadline, he raced around the track behind his friend and rival, and qualified for Beijing.

In July, he went to Windsor, Ont., for the Canadian track and field championships. With 150 metres left to go in the race, he collided with Cassidy, and crashed to the track.

The incident brought memories of the 1,500 demonstration event in Athens in 2004, where Adams collided with world champion Joel Jeannot, and destroyed his wheelchair in the ensuing crash.

But the Canadian won't change his aggressive racing style. "I was on the shoulder of the world champion. I was on his elbow, that's exactly where I wanted to be, and if I had to do it again tomorrow I'd be in exactly the same place."

"The decisions that I made were, I think, the best ones, and I crashed. That's the way it goes, and you can't not be ready for that to happen."

Although he is ready for the possibility of disaster, Adams will be hoping for a better result in Beijing, where he will be using a new chair that he designed himself.

Carbon-fibre racing chair

Adams and a friend made a working prototype of a carbon-fibre racing chair and took the idea to Cervélo Cycles, a Toronto-based bicycle company. The company liked the idea and agreed to produce the product.

"It's a very, very fast chair," says Adams. He has used it to record the third-fastest time in the world this year in completing the Canadian Paralympic A standard, as well as win the 1,500 event at the U.S. Paralympic Trials in Arizona.

He has also used the chair in training with Cassidy and Mark Ledo, another Canadian wheelchair racer. Cassidy, 24, was the 2006 men's 800 Canadian champion. Ledo, 30, has a list of victories to his credit, including the 2006 Boston half-marathon.

They train by riding their chairs through the streets of Toronto, the same streets Adams drives in his light blue 1970 Desoto Adventurer.

Training on the streets is necessary, since training on a track carries a risk of overdeveloping one side of the body. But given the choice of whether he prefers busy Toronto streets or the open road, Adams replies: "I'd rather train on downtown streets."

Racing in the maelstrom

He doesn't seem to mind the frenzy of cars, just as he doesn't mind the frenzy of racers on the track. "That's always been my strength. All you can do is go in knowing that in the middle of a maelstrom, you're going to make the right decision. I've just always been able to live my life that way too, where the chaos is something that I really like."

The chaos will come to a head in Beijing. There, Adams will officially unveil his carbon-fibre wheelchair as well as compete in the 1,500. But while he is racing the 1,500, he will not be thinking about business.

When asked what goes through his mind, he responds, "I think about ways of making this wheelchair go as fast as I possibly can."

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