Young cyclo-cross star Tofik Beshir has left intensive care and is responsive after being involved in "a serious head-on incident with an automobile" while training on October 8, nearly two weeks ago.
Beshir, 19, was training near his Lees-McRae College in North Carolina when the incident happened, and he was airlifted to hospital in Tennessee where he remained unconscious and in ICU with "injuries consistent with brain shear trauma".
He was later moved to a hospital in Washington D.C. to receive ongoing care.
Lees-McRae cycling team coach Timothy Hall has been providing intermittent updates via Instagram about Beshir's condition, reporting last week that he had been able to move his hands, open his eyes, and react to speaking.
His team and family have decided not to share many specific medical details about the extent of Beshir's injuries, but in the latest update, Hall confirmed that he has left the ICU.
"In the past few days, Tofik has been moved out of the ICU and he is responsive," he said. "This is incredible news for him and his progress, but he still has a long way to go."
Beshir's story has been met with an outpouring of support from the cycling community in the US and beyond, with a GoFundMe started to support the cost of his medical care now sitting at over $135,000 of donations, and hundreds of messages of support on social media.
"Your thoughts and your prayers, they're working, they are absolutely working, so please keep sending those his way, to his family and to our team," Hall said. "He has a long way to go, and we are still in need of that miracle. We believe more good things are coming, but he needs everyone to continue praying and thinking about him."
Born in Virginia to Ethiopian parents, Beshir is a freshman at Lees-McRae college and has been racing on the US cyclo-cross circuit since he was a junior.
He took his first elite victory last winter, and this year raced the USCX series with the CXD Trek Bikes team. He won five of the six races to secure the overall series title just a few days before his crash.
