Georgia Baker

Georgia Baker was destined to be a sporting success, but as a junior athlete growing up in Launceston, her sport of choice was unclear.

The all-round athlete achieved a black belt in taekwondo at nine years of age and also competed in swimming, netball and triathlon, where she represented her state.

Her cycling career began after she attended a talent identification session at her primary school and was identified by the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.

She was soon crowned junior world champion and set herself the goal of becoming an Olympian.

By 2016, Georgia was already a multiple junior world title winner, she first competed at the elite level at the 2016 UCI Track World Championships, where she finished fifth in the team pursuit and was a sprint win away from the podium in the points race.

The promising results allowed the Tasmanian to realise her Olympic dream, however, a training crash on the eve of the Rio 2016 Games cruelled Australia's chances of a podium finish in the team pursuit.

Gallantly, Georgia lined up in all three of the team’s rides as they eventually defeated Italy to claim fifth.

Georgia experienced another setback in 2017 when she was diagnosed with an abnormal heart rate (supraventricular tachycardia). The condition was caused by an overactive nerve around her heart and occurred two years after her father died of a heart attack, aged 44.

Although non-life threatening, the then 23-year-old underwent surgery in an effort to prolong her cycling career.

Two weeks after surgery, she was back at training and less than a year later she won gold in the team pursuit at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

At the 2019 World Championships, Georgia teamed up with Ashlee Ankudinoff, Alexandra Manly, Annette Edmondson and Amy Cure to win the team pursuit and also won silver with Amy in the madison.

During the 2019-20 World Cup season, Georgia excelled with three madison gold medals and team pursuit gold and silver.

At the 2020 World Championships, the Australian team was unable to defend its world title, finishing fifth in the team pursuit and individually Georgia finished 14th in the omnium.

Georgia formed part of Australia’s women’s team pursuit which finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.

She rode all three rounds including qualifying in which the Aussie quartet posted the seventh fastest time, as well as their remaining races against Italy and New Zealand, which they won both.

She also teamed up with Annette Edmondson to compete in the first ever Olympic women’s madison where they finished the 120-lap race in seventh place behind Great Britain’s Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny, who won gold.

After Tokyo, Georgia switched her focus to the road and took a debut win in Europe at the Thuringen Ladies Tour. She followed this with podium places in time trials at the Tour de Suisse and a second the Giro Donne.

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Georgia took a trio of gold medals in the road race, points race and team pursuit, alongside Sophie Edwards, Chloe Moran and Maeve Plouffe, setting a Games record time of 4:14.06.

More success followed in 2023, winning the madison national championships and finishing second in the points race and madison (the latter with Alex Manly) at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.