Belgium's Marc Herremans is back in Kona this year after his breakthrough sixth-place finish here last year. On Thursday, he was part of the professionals news conference, but he wasn't able to sit at the long conference table alongside his compatriots.

Instead, the two-time Belgian triathlon champ wheeled his chair up to the table's edge to take his questions from the press.

In January, while on a training ride in Lanzarote, Herremans crashed on his bike and was paralyzed from the chest down. The 28-year-old was supposed to spend up to nine months in the hospital. Instead, four months ago, he began training for his return to the Big Island—this year.

Thursday's news conference was hard for him, he said—he wanted to be seated with his friends: "Now I'm sitting here in a wheelchair," he said.

The training helped keep his mind occupied and kept him from dwelling on what had happened. "I don't have time to think," he said.

He sought out Ironman wheelchair champ Carlos Moleda for advice, and hopes that advice will help propel him to the finish. He had lots of encouragement from two-time Kona champ and friend Luc van Lierde, a faithful visitor while Herremans was hospitalized.

Just getting to the start line this year is a victory, he said. And he has no illusions about what the day may bring.

"It will be very difficult," he said. "I am glad to be here again."

So far in his training, the swim and run have come along well, "but the bike is very difficult." A one-hour training ride on the bike course Thursday was very taxing and left him quite sore, he said. And if the race doesn't go the way he hopes, he's made himself a promise that he'll be back next year.

Focusing on his return to Kona stoked his fighting spirit: "It means a lot to me."

"I have to do something," he said. "It was my way to fight back."

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