Sam Welsford

Fast Facts

Sport: Cycling – Track 
Event: Endurance  
Olympic History: Rio 2016 (silver), Tokyo 2020 (bronze)
Year Born:  1996   
State Born:  Western Australia

About Sam

Like father like son, a seven-year-old Sam Welsford started cycling because he wanted to be like his dad.

Welsford would see his dad go out on early morning rides and one day asked if he could join him. From these humble beginnings, Welsford achieved Olympic and World Championships success and is one to watch as the Australian Cycling Team gears up for Tokyo 2020.  

As a competitive cyclist, Welsford showed his potential early on, winning back-to-back team Pursuit junior world titles in 2013 and 2014. 

Welsford was a part of the Australian Pursuit team that was victorious at the 2016 World Championships, the victory confirming his place on the Australian Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.  

​There, Welsford helped the Aussies finish third in qualification before they won their first-round clash with Denmark to move through to the final where they took on Great Britain for gold.

The Aussies went out hard but the British reeled them in and took the win while breaking the world record as Welsford, Michael Hepburn, Alex Edmondson, Jack Bobridge and Callum Scotson won silver.  

At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Welsford teamed up with Alex Porter, Leigh Howard and Kelland O’Brien, to become the first pursuit team in history to break the three-minute (3:49.804) fifty-second barrier on their way to winning gold. 

The quartet then smashed their own world record at the 2019 World Championships clocking 3min 48.012sec. Welsford won two gold medals in the space of 30 minutes with victory also coming in the men's Scratch. 

His form flowed into 2020 as Welsford claimed dual gold in the Mmnium and Madison at the World Cup and Oceania Championships in Brisbane. Welsford dominated all four events in the Omnium, before sealing madison gold on the final lap.

At the 2020 World Championships, Welsford was part of Australia's title defence in the men's Team Pursuit. The quartet were just two-hundredths of a second off fourth, from Italy who claimed bronze.

Sam Welsford was the only member of Australia’s men’s team pursuit that won a silver medal in Rio in 2016 who returned for the Tokyo 2020 campaign looking to go one better.

The new-look team of Welsford, Alex Porter, Leigh Howard and Kelland O’Brien were world champions in 2019 but suffered a setback in qualifying in Tokyo when Porter crashed at high speed and the team was granted a restart.

They posted the fifth fastest time before Porter was replaced by Lucas Plapp and they rode an Olympic record 3mins 44.90secs to beat Switzerland, and then lapped New Zealand in their final to claim bronze.

Welsford also rode the men’s omnium where he finished 11th overall. He was ninth on placings after the scratch and tempo races and then 11th after the elimination and points events as Great Britain’s Matthew Walls won gold.