Australia and Olympic Cycling

Australia has a long and proud tradition in Olympic cycling and in terms of medals won per events contested the sport is one of the most successful for this nation.

Australia’s first Olympic medallist in cycling was Edgar “Dunc” Gray finished third in the 1000 metres time trial at Amsterdam 1928. He went on to win the same event at Los Angeles 1932. Russell Mockridge won the time trial in Helsinki in 1952 and then joined with Lionel Cox to finish first in the tandem. Ian Browne and Tony Marchant repeated the win in the tandem at Melbourne 1956.

It wasn’t until Los Angeles 1984 that the next gold medal was won in the team pursuit. Michael Turtur, Kevin Nichols, Dean Woods and Michael Grenda teamed up to defeat the Americans.

Kathy Watt won the women’s road race in Barcelona in 1992 and in doing so became the first Australian to win an Olympic gold medal on the road. Watt’s silver medal in the individual pursuit later that week made her the first Australian to win two individual cycling medals at the same Olympics. Australia’s next cycling gold medal came in the Madison at Sydney 2000 when Brett Aitken and Scott McGrory combined for an emotion-charged victory.

Athens 2004 saw a “gold-rush” for Australia with a record six gold medals. Ryan Bayley in winning the men’s sprint and the keirin became the first Australian to win two individual cycling gold medals, and at the same Olympics. Other gold medals were garnered by Anna Meares with a world record time in the 500m time trial, Sara Carrigan who emulated Kathy Watts’s win in the women’s road race, the all-conquering team pursuit squad and Graeme Brown with the versatile Stuart O’Grady in the Madison.

Australia’s best mountain bike results have been a sixth to Mary Grigson and seventh to Cadel Evans at Sydney 2000.

Olympic History

Cycling events have been present at every staging of the Modern Olympics since Athens 1896. Women’s cycling was introduced in Los Angeles in 1984, mountain biking made its Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996 and BMX makes its first appearance in Beijing.

With the advent of professional cyclists in Atlanta, Olympic cycling has gained in popularity with the inclusion of many household names such as Miguel Indurain of Spain, American Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich of Germany from the Tour de France.

Current World Records

Click here to access the IOC Current World Records (as at 15 Mar2004)

Gold Medal Winners from the Past Three Olympic Games

Click here for a complete document of winners from Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.