To the world, Dory Selinger was a three-time world champion and four-time paralympic medalist. He won gold in Atlanta in 1996, and three more medals in Sydney in 2000.
To Ili Selinger, Dory was his big brother.
“It's a blur. It's, you know, going through the stages of grief and the waves of grief is pretty awful,” Ili Selinger said. “You know, shock, definitely, and again, comes in waves.”
They were close, less than two years apart – and grew up riding their bikes together.
“He would be Ponch, Poncherello, and I would be John from CHIPS, for those who are old enough to remember,” he said. “We would mountain bike together. He didn't leave me behind, let's just put it that way. He would even push me up the hill sometimes.”
Ryan Crissey was Dory Selinger’s coach and one of his best friends. Selinger was a groomsman at Crissey’s wedding.
“We went all over the world together,” Crissey said. He has countless memories of Selinger and the races they worked on together, such as the 1998 Olympics in Australia.
“He came back in one by about tenth of a second,” Crissey said. “It was just a phenomenal come from behind win. And so that was really a bonding moment between Dory and I of trust and planning and everything else.”
Crissey is the director of the International Cycling Union and is part of a group of professional cyclists in North Texas. Selinger’s death has heightened concerns about safety, he said.
Selinger was on a ride the morning of April 16 when he was struck and killed by a car. It was the fourth cyclist death in North Texas in recent months: Phil Balli was killed in Richardson in late March, and in December Scott Mages and Andre Kocher were killed during a ride in Pilot Point.
This wasn’t Selinger’s first accident, either. In 1993 a woman experiencing a mental health episode drove into Selinger and other cyclists, killing one of his friends. One of Selinger’s legs was amputated below the knee, and he suffered a head injury that affected his speech.
Ili Selinger never thought his brother would be involved in another accident.
“One would never expect lightning to strike twice as it did in his case,” he said. "It was never really on my mind to fear for him riding again.”
For cyclist Michael Gacki, who also works in the cycling industry, the news of Dory Selinger’s death came as a shock.
“This one hit me really, really hard, because Dory and I were together two weeks ago riding,” Gacki said. “And we were talking about his wife and his kids and how much he loved them.”
Gacki grew up in New York City and has been riding bikes for 38 years at a high level. Living in Celina, he thought it would be safer.
“I've had people buzz me, you know, come within six inches of me on Coit [Road] here in Celina,” he said. “It's like, you're in a 6,000-pound car, I'm on a 14-pound carbon fiber bicycle. You hit me, I'm going to lose 100 times out of 100. It just varies on how much I'm going to lose.”
He said since Selinger’s death, Gacki’s wife – who’s also a cyclist –doesn’t want him riding alone.
“She's never said no,” he said. “This is the first time where she's said, ‘I have concerns.’”
Gacki and others want Selinger’s death to be a reminder to drivers to slow down and pay more attention – so cyclists can continue to do what they love.
“I want this as loud as proud as possible,” he said. “Maybe it changes one person's attitude. Maybe it saves a life. Maybe it changes someone's mindset and they don't do something they normally would have done. And if that happens, this is all success.”
Lack of infrastructure
Cycling advocates like Crissey point to a lack of infrastructure as one reason why cycling in North Texas is so dangerous.
Last year there were 186 cyclist deaths in Texas; that number’s more than doubled in the past decade.
Crissey said the landscape has evolved over the years, but it’s still lacking in overall safety.
Dallas passed its bike plan last year, and the park department recently completed the Trinity Forest Spine Trail in Pleasant Grove. That’s part of The Loop, a much-anticipated paved route that’s going to circle the city’s core.
“A lot of the infrastructure we're talking about could be more mobility lanes that are not just for bicycles, but for pedestrians, for scooters, for all these other things that people are wanting to do and get out,” Crissey said. “You know, we all need more outside activity and outdoor exercise.”
Crissey was among a group of advocates that met with state Sens. Brent Hagenbuch and Angela Paxton’s staff earlier this week to talk about safer roads for cyclists in car-centric North Texas.
“Cycling in Dallas and especially outside of the city is for those who are willing to put themselves in danger for the most part, unfortunately,” said Rebekah Kornblum, president of the Dallas Bicycle Coalition, who was in the meeting.
The group wants the senators to write a letter to the state’s Department of Public Safety about statewide driver education reform. Right now, legal protections for cyclists are a patchwork of state law and local ordinances – some cities like Dallas and Houston have stronger protections than others.
According to state law, bikes are considered vehicles. That means there are more legal protections for pedestrians than there are for cyclists. Kornblum said they want those policies to be enforced for everyone statewide.
“Drivers need to give cyclists more space, pay closer attention to them and drivers need to be held accountable if they cause harm or especially death to cyclists,” she said.
She also said her coalition will keep pushing local leaders to support projects and policies that could save lives.
She added it’s not a biker versus driver problem, but rather about overall safety.
“My goal is for cycling to not only just be for those who are willing to put their lives at risk for a sport that they love or because they have no other way to get around,” she said, “but for it to be a safe and enjoyable activity for anyone who wants to.”
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