Pushing it: Queally has the power ©Doug Pensinger/ALLSPORT

Until the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jason Queally was a little known track-racing cyclist from Manchester, struggling to keep his gold medal ambitions alive with only the tightest of lottery budgets to fund his training in the years leading up to the Games.

Queally could have chosen to pursue a career in biological sciences, for which he holds a university degree, but his determination to bring a gold medal back to Britain paid off. Jason not only won Britain’s first gold of the Sydney Games in the one kilometer time trial event, but also took home the Olympic sprint silver medal.

Born in Great Heywood, Staffordshire, Queally, 31, graduated from Lancaster University, where he represented British Universities at water polo. He competed in various triathlons before turning to cycling in 1995 after completing a course at the Manchester velodrome.

In 1996 Queally chose to cycle full-time, winning a silver medal in the one kilometer time trial at the National Track Championships. Two years later he won a silver medal in the one kilometer time trial at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

In the 1999 World Championships he came 5th in the one kilometer time trial and, together with Chris Ho and Craig MacLean, won silver medal in the Olympic sprint. However, his finest hour to date came at the Sydney Olympics, with a gold medal in the kilometer time trial on the opening day of the Games.

 

	Sydney 2000: Golden boy ©Ross Kinnaird/ALLSPORT

His accomplishments are all the more extraordinary in the light of a near-tragic accident in 1997. An 45cm/18in long splinter pierced his body when he fell during a race at the Meadowbank velodrome.

The wooden fragment sliced into his back and penetrated his chest, nearly killing him. Although he returned to competitive cycling within a few months, the mental scars took longer to heal.

Maintaining his peak physical condition is of paramount importance to Queally, as this is an essential factor in allowing him to achieve his other ambitions in life. These include winning a second Olympic gold, in Athens 2004, and also to become the first rider to break the one-minute kilometer.