Julie Speight
| File:Julie riding.jpg | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Julie Robyn Speight |
| Born | 1 October 1966 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Track Sprint; Criterium |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Sprint, Track |
| Amateur teams | |
| 1985 (Coors Classic) | McDonalds/Dia-Compe/Suntour |
| 1993-1994 | Fuji World Team |
Julie Robyn Speight (born 1 October 1966) is an Australian former cyclist and Australia's first female Olympic and Commonwealth Games track cyclist, competing in the women's sprint event at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics[1] and winning a silver medal in the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games.[2] At the time, she was described as 'a class above any other female rider in the country.'[3]
Speight is the only Australian to have held both the national Road and Track Sprint titles in the same year (1983).[2]
In 1984 Speight was selected to compete in the inaugural Women's Road Race at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Australian cycling officials, however, later reneged by electing not to send a women's team to Los Angeles.[4] Instead, Speight was sent to the Yu King Cup Road Race in China where she became the first Australian female cyclist to win an international race.[4]
When Speight started competing in the early 1980s there were only two national track events in which women could enter - the Sprint, and the Scratch Race.[5] During her career, Speight lobbied for more women's events to be added as state and national titles[6] and was successful in her campaign to have a Points Race included in the 1990 Australian National Track Championships.[5]
In 2017 Speight was recognised for her trailblazing contribution to Australian women's cycling through her induction into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame.[7]
Speight lives in Hobart, Tasmania, where she is on the Executive of the Tasmanian Olympic Council and also works to raise awareness of concussion related injuries, namely Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes.[8]
Honours
In 1983 Speight was awarded the Bradley Matthews Memorial Award from Randwick City Council[9].
At the 1987 Christmas Carnivals in Shepparton, Victoria, Speight was named Rider of the Series.[10]
In 1989 Speight was crowned Rider of the Year at T-Town Velodrome, Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, USA,[11] the track from which she would eventually announce her retirement from racing in 1997.
In 1994 Speight was inducted into the Randwick Sporting Hall of Fame[12].
In 2017 Speight was the first female track sprinter to be inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame.[13]
Major results
- 1983
- 1st Sprint, Australian National Track Championships
- 1st Road Race, Australian National Road Championships
- 3rd Scratch Race, Australian National Track Championships
- DNF Road Race, World Road Championships, Altenrhein Switzerland
- 1984
- 1st Road Race, Yu King Cup Road Race, Taiyuan, China
- 1985
- 1st Scratch Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 1st Points Race, Australia Games
- 3rd Individual Pursuit, Australian National Track Championships
- 82nd Road Race, World Track Championships, Giavera del Montello, Italy
- 2 x Stage wins, Niagara Classic Stage Race (known from 2016 as the Steve Bauer Classic), Ontario, Canada
- 2nd Wheat Thins/Mayor's Cup Series, Pittsburgh, USA
- 1986
- 3rd Scratch Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 1988
- 1st Sprint, Australian National Track Championships
- 1st Scratch Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 5th Sprint, Olympic Games, Seoul
- 1989
- 8th Points Race, World Track Championships, Lyon, France
- 1990
- 1st Points Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 2nd Sprint,
1990 Commonwealth Games, Auckland - 3rd Sprint, Australian National Track Championships
- 6th Points Race, World Track Championships, Maebashi, Japan
- 1991
- 1st Sprint, Australian National Track Championships
- 3rd Points Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 3rd Mixed (Men & Women) Turkey Chase Madison, with Paul Pearson, Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, USA
- 1992
- 1st Harlem Skyscraper Classic, New York, USA
- 2nd Tour of Somerville, New Jersey, USA
- 1st Points Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 2nd Sprint, Australian National Track Championships
- 2nd Scratch Race, Australian National Track Championships
- 15th Points Race, World Track Championships, Valencia, Spain
- 1996
- 3rd 500m Time Trial, Australian National Track Championships
References
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Julie Speight Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
- ^ a b "Julie Speight". Cycling Australia.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Speight Australia's First Female Cyclist". Canberra Times. 23 April 1988. p. 12.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Howlett, Scott (24 February 1985). "Medal Hunter". Sun-Herald.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Setka, Dennis (2017). Australian Cycling Championships 1888-2017. Results for Track, Road, BMX, MTB, Trials & Cyclo-Cross. NSW: CycleStats. pp. 53–59. ISBN 978-0-646-96842-1.
- ^ citation needed
- ^ "Hall of Fame". Cycling Australia.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "NRL slammed over $450 000 pledge for concussion research". Sydney Morning Herald. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Sporting excellence". Randwick City Council.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ citation required
- ^ "Rider of the Year". Retrieved 9 September 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Sporting Excellence". Randwick City Council. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Hall of Fame". Cycling Australia. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)