TORONTO \u2014 Four years after a lawnmower accident nearly cost him both legs, 10-year-old Austin Byres crossed the finish line at Supertri Toronto on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Byres ran the final stretch of the annual triathlon alongside Canadian Olympic triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk and members of the team from Toronto\u2019s Hospital for Sick Children that helped save both his legs and feet after the accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt very good that I accomplished that,\u201d Austin said moments after finishing. \u201cI was looking forward to crossing the finish line with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, Austin suffered severe injuries to both legs and feet in the accident. He was airlifted to SickKids Hospital, where he faced serious complications, including the possibility of amputation, but doctors were able to save both of his feet.<\/p>\n
Austin said he was thankful for the help he got at the hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey helped me by reattaching my foot. Without them I probably wouldn\u2019t be able to run or anything like that. I probably wouldn\u2019t even have my foot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mislawchuk won the men\u2019s pro race earlier in the day, posting the fastest run to take the title in front of a home crowd. Slovakia\u2019s Zuzana Michali\u010dkov\u00e1 won the women\u2019s race in 59:34, with Canada\u2019s Kira Gupta-Baltazar finishing third.<\/p>\n
Mislawchuk said running the final stretch with Austin afterward was one of the highlights of his day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got approached about it, I wanted to be part of it as soon as they mentioned it,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember telling everyone around me, \u2018What a cool opportunity.\u2019 Those don\u2019t come around all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin\u2019s parents and brother watched from behind the finish line as he came through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was such pride watching him, and his smile, and his positive attitude through the entire process,\u201d his mother, Erika Byres, said. <\/p>\n
His father, Kurt Byres, said the family hopes Austin\u2019s example resonates beyond his own recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud of Austin and all the perseverance that he showed us, and we really hope that he can show other kids that you can really do anything you can put your mind to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jack, Austin\u2019s brother, echoed that sentiment. \u201cI feel proud of him, to show that he can do anything no matter how hard it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Sandra Ezekwesili, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Four years after a lawnmower accident nearly cost him both legs, 10-year-old Austin Byres crossed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,83,11867,82,3302],"class_list":["post-828244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disaster","tag-ontario-quebec","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}