Three-time wheelchair motocross champion, 17, says sport has given him his ‘life back’ and now hopes to inspire others

A 17-year-old who first tried wheelchair motocross in 2020 has since become a three-time world champion, saying the sport has given him his “life back” after a childhood spent unable to walk without pain.

Tomas Woods, from Preston, grew up with painful joints and digestive issues, and in 2019 was finally diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

According to the NHS, people with this condition often have joint hypermobility, loose and unstable joints that dislocate easily, joint pain, digestive problems, dizziness, and issues with bladder control.

Tomas began using a wheelchair that same year, which allowed him to leave the house without enduring constant pain afterwards, and he became “obsessed” with watching wheelchair motocross videos on YouTube.

After emailing his local skatepark, he tried the sport for the first time in 2020, instantly “loving it”, and competed later that year.

Today, Tomas is a three-time world champion and has launched his own foundation to help others get involved in the sport, with the hopes of seeing wheelchair motocross included in the Paralympics by 2032.

Tomas told PA Real Life: “WCMX is BMX, but in a wheelchair, so it’s doing tricks on the skate park obstacles.

“Since I’ve started doing the sport, my life has done a complete 180 and it’s given me my life back – before I got the wheelchair I was staying at home every day.

“WCMX has given me so much freedom – I’m travelling all over the world, meeting amazing people and helping other people have amazing opportunities.”

Growing up, Tomas experienced digestive issues, as well as flexible and painful joints, and was home-educated from the age of eight, as he found attending school difficult due to needing to take medication several times a day.

It was not until 2019, aged 11, that he was formally diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, after “yet another sports injury wouldn’t heal”.

He said: “At the time, even if I walked around the retail park or around the block, the next few days, I basically wouldn’t be able to leave my bed.

“It would affect my joints really badly, especially my lower limbs.

“All the things that my friends were doing I wasn’t able to participate in – that was the biggest mental impact.

“I got to the point where my joints weren’t letting me do the things I wanted to do.”

His mother Joanna Woods said: “I had to park at the door of the shop at the retail park and he… would take four or five days to recover… from a six-minute walk.”

In late 2019, Tomas started using a wheelchair and found that it gave him freedom.

“The wheelchair allowed me to get out of the house and go and do things again,” he explained.

That same year, he felt inspired after watching YouTube videos of wheelchair motocross riders.

He emailed his local skatepark, Graystone Action Sports Academy in Salford, and in January 2020 he tried it out for the first time there.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking at first, but it was very fun,” he recalled.

“I had a few little falls, but overall it was a fun experience… I was just obsessed with the videos so it was so exciting to do it, I was loving it.”

He continued doing the sport as much as he could during the Covid pandemic, investing in a specialist chair costing around £5,000.

Tomas said: “You can start using your normal chair to start riding but then you definitely need a chair that’s built for it.

“The wheels are tighter and stronger, because you need to take more side impact, you want a frame that’s got suspension for big drops.

“It needs an upper and lower frame, with the lower frame having grind bars on it so you can hit rails.”

In October 2020, the Wheelchair Motocross World Championships took place online, with contestants allowed to film themselves and send in their submissions.

He said: “All in person competitions can run in two formats – you can either have two runs, each run lasts one minute 30 seconds – once the buzzer goes you can do whatever you want, I usually do some big tricks that flow into smaller connecting ones and you want it to flow well.

“Or you can do two runs plus best trick, where you will get three best trick attempts.

“You’re scored and then ranked.”

Tomas went to his local skatepark, submitted a video of his best run, and came fourth in the intermediate division, skipping past the beginner division.

“I couldn’t believe it really – doing it over video definitely gave me the opportunity to practise more,” Tomas added.

His next competition was in Switzerland in 2022, where he was bumped up to the pro men’s division and came fourth, and in the same year, he competed in another event in Germany, placing third in the pro division.

At the end of 2022, he ranked fourth in the world at the World Championships in the men’s pro league.

He then went on to win the World Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025, making him a three-time world champion at just 17 years old.

“It’s been a bit mental, and I think I’ve just taken every opportunity as it comes and just tried to keep pushing as much as possible,” he said.

“When I heard my name at first, this year, I thought ‘F****** hell, we’ve done it again’ and I went up to the front, shake everybody’s hand and congratulate everybody.”

To train, Tomas rides his specialist wheelchair three times a week, and is coached by an ex-Team GB athlete, who is now working towards training other coaches with Tomas.

Tomas also goes to the gym as much as he can, focusing mainly on upper body strength.

Looking ahead, Tomas hopes to retain his champion title but is also focused on his “community efforts”.

Through his work, he has been able to donate specialist wheelchairs to Graystone Action Sports Academy in Salford for others to use.

He has also launched the Tomas Woods WCMX Foundation in America to further help people get into the sport.

“I’m in America for seven weeks fundraising and so the big focus of that is getting chairs in front of people so they can give it a try,” Tomas explained.

“The main barrier for people is the cost to get a chair – they can cost £5,000 to £15,000.

“We’re planning a big tour in America, working with local organisations and skateparks to help build these communities.”

He is hoping that the sport will be added to the Paralympics in 2032.

Tomas said: “There’s lots of criteria that has to be met so we’re working on it behind the scenes, and we’re working with a few different people to try and see what we can do.

“But there’s so many hoops to jump through to make that happen – it’d be amazing to be there one day.”