Kelland's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Cycling – Track
Event: Endurance
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020 (bronze)
Coach: Tim Decker
Year Born: 1998
State Born: Victoria
About Kelland
Growing up in Kew Victoria, Kelland O’Brien would accompany his dad to the BMX track where he was introduced to the different cycling disciplines. O’Brien started in BMX, switched to mountain bike and also ventured onto the road before ending up at the track.
O’Brien’s green and gold journey began in 2015 when he represented Australia at the 2015 Junior World Championships. His performances netted him a Madison gold and Team Pursuit bronze.
In 2017, he graduated to the elite ranks and claimed dual Oceania crowns as well as maiden World Championships gold in the Individual Pursuit. There he also won bronze in the Individual Pursuit in a personal best time.
In 2018, O’Brien netted dual Nationals and dual Oceania crowns, plus World Cup gold. The season highlight came at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games when he won team pursuit gold with Sam Welsford, Leigh Howard and Alex Porter. The quartet became the first in history to break the three-minute (3:49.804) fifty-second barrier.
As well as defending their world title in 2019, O’Brien and the team also broke the world record.
With six national track titles to his name, O'Brien broke through and won his maiden road national crown in 2020, winning the Under 23 Criterium Championships.
O’Brien was notably absent from the 2020 Track World Championships after he experienced a crash during stage four of his first Tour Down Under. He required surgery to repair a broken collarbone but is fighting fit and ready for his first Olympic campaign.
In Tokyo, Kelland was part of Australia’s men’s team pursuit which bravely fought back from a nasty crash in qualifying to win a bronze medal.
O’Brien’s teammate Alex Porter was involved in a heavy crash during qualifying which forced the Australian quartet to restart their ride.
They posted the fifth fastest time of 3mins 48secs then with Luke Plapp replacing Porter in the line-up, they produced an Olympic record ride of 3mins 44.90secs against Switzerland in the next round to progress to the bronze medal race against New Zealand.
In a dramatic showdown, Australia’s team of O’Brien, Plapp, Sam Welsford and Leigh Howard trailed the Kiwis by just 0.048 of a second at the 2km half-way mark of their race before one of the New Zealand riders crashed and Australia lapped their Trans-Tasman rivals.
O’Brien also combined with Howard to finish 12th in the madison which was won by Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen and Michael Morkov.
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01 of 04 / Sam Welsford, Leigh Howard, Kelland O'Brien and Alexander Porter compete in the final of the Men’s Team Pursuit during the Cambridge UCI Track World Cup in Cambridge, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
01 of 04 / Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien, Leigh Howard, Alexander Porter and Cameron Scott celebrate winning the gold medal in the Men's team pursuit race final at UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2019 (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
01 of 04 / Kelland O'Brien and Alex Porter celebrate victory in the final of the Men's Team Pursuit during the 2019 Brisbane Track World Cup (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
01 of 04 / Kelland O'Brien of Australia competes in the Men's Points Race Final on day three of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships held in the BGZ BNP Paribas Velodrome Arena on March 01, 2019 in Pruszkow, Poland. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
