Bradley McGee

Brad McGee’s resilience is summed up by the story of how, just 18 days before he was supposed to race at the Sydney Olympics, he needed a plate and screws inserted in his collar bone after he broke it in a fall at training.  

Despite the setback – and the mad race against the clock to compete – McGee defied the odds to step onto the podium to claim his Olympic bronze medal in front of a roaring home crowd. 

By the of his retirement in 2008, McGee had written his own chapter in Australia’s history book of cycling through his efforts to win five Olympic track medals, two world championship titles, five Commonwealth gold medals and a series of epic feats as a road cyclist in Europe. 

McGee is also remembered as the first Australian to wear the leaders’ jersey in each of the three Grand Tour races: the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. His celebrated stage wins at both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia was a fair effort for a boy from Sydney who started cycling as a skinny 16-year-old all because he wanted to race his three older brothers at the local velodrome. 

His sudden growth spurt coincided with a noticeable improvement. In 1995 McGee became a world champion in the team pursuit before he turned 20 by setting the under-19 3000m world record. One year later he won a pair of bronze medals during his Olympic debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games. 

McGee shone in 2004. After winning an Olympic gold in the team pursuit at Athens plus a silver in the individual pursuit, McGee finished the Giro d’ Italia in eighth place after winning the prologue. 

He proved he was capable of such a performance in 2003 when he had the honour of wearing the Tour de France’s iconic yellow jersey for the opening three days of the race as his well-earned reward for crossing the line first in the prologue. 

McGee, who was on a NSWIS scholarship from 1996-2002, is currently the High Performance Advisor at NSWIS after serving as the Institute’s Cycling Performance Manager.