With just 44 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Olympics, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has announced today 18 cyclists as officially selected to represent Team GB at the Games.
The cyclists selected today will compete across the Track Cycling, BMX and Mountain Biking disciplines, which will take place at the Olympic Park Velodrome, BMX Track and Hadleigh Farm venues respectively.
Today’s announcement was made at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester, the home of British Cycling and the GB Cycling Team.
The cyclists selected to Team GB today are:
Track (Sprint):
Track (Endurance):
BMX:
Cross Country Mountain Biking:
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Also revealed today by British Cycling is the shortlist of men's and women's road cyclists from which the five male and four female athletes will be selected to Team GB at a later date.
The riders on the shortlist for Olympic selection are:
Men’s Road (five to be selected)
Women’s Road (four to be selected)
Team GB has a fine Olympic pedigree in cycling, having won a total of 49 Olympic medals to date, including 15 gold, making Great Britain one of the most successful countries in Olympic cycling history. At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Team GB cyclists won an outstanding eight gold medals from a possible 18 to lead the medal table.
Since then, changes made to the Olympic Programme by the International Cycling Federation means it will be more difficult to replicate the unprecedented medal success recorded in Beijing, but British cyclists remain world-leaders and are well placed to deliver success again at London 2012.
The cyclists selected today have won multiple Olympic and World Championship titles, most recently at the 2012 Track World Championships in Melbourne where they secured 13 medals, including six gold.
The track cycling team is led by four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy, who was one of Team GB’s outstanding performers at the last Olympic Games in Beijing where he won a hat-trick of gold medals. This will be his fourth Olympics.
Hoy is joined in the men’s track cycling team by Jason Kenny, who is vying with Hoy for the only individual sprint place in the team. Nineteen year old Philip Hindes completes the men’s track sprint team selection.
Victoria Pendleton is included for her third Olympic Games in the women’s track cycling team, and the 31-year-old will be looking to add to the gold medal she won in the women’s individual sprint discipline at Beijing 2008. Pendleton is joined in the sprint team by 21-year-old Jessica Varnish.
Also selected to the women’s track squad is 19-year-old Laura Trott. The youngest member of the Team GB cycling squad has already tasted international success by winning the team pursuit and the omnium gold at the 2012 World Championships in Melbourne. The omnium, which consists of six events, will be contested for the first time at the Olympic Games.
Away from the track, four-time World Champion Shanaze Reade will compete in the BMX discipline, and will be looking to rectify the disappointment of missing out on a medal when she crashed in the final at Beijing 2008. The 23-year-old showed her Olympic medal credentials by winning the test event held at the Olympic Park BMX Track in August 2011. She is joined by 23-year-old Liam Phillips, who is selected for the men’s BMX event this summer.
Four-time British Champion Liam Killeen will compete in the cross-country mountain biking discipline, and will be looking to improve on the fifth place he recorded at Beijing in 2008. He is joined by 21-year-old Annie Last, who will be competing at her first Olympic Games.
The addition of the cyclists brings the total number of athletes officially selected to compete for Team GB at London 2012 to 233 across nineteen sport disciplines: archery, athletics – marathon, badminton, boxing, canoe slalom, cycling, diving, fencing, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronised swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and weightlifting.
The athletes were formally nominated to the BOA for selection to Team GB by British Cycling, the National Governing Body for cycling in the UK.
Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
Team GB Cycling Team Leader and British Cycling Performance Director Dave Brailsford CBE said:
Sir Chris Hoy said:
Victoria Pendleton said:
Ed Clancy said:
Shanaze Reade said:
Annie Last said: