Grace Brown

After her cross-country running career was hampered by injuries, Camperdown-born Grace Brown switched to cycling at the age of 23.

She raced in the National Road Series with Holden Team Gusto until a breakout 2018, when she won bronze in the road race national championship and claimed the Oceania time trial title.

Brown was awarded the 2018 Amy Gillett Cycling Scholarship, which propelled her overseas with the Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling Team. In her Australian representative debut, she helped Amanda Spratt win silver at the UCI Road Race World Championship in Innsbruck.

In 2019, Brown stepped up to the WorldTour with Mitchelton-Scott and won her first time trial national title, plus a stage at the Tour Down Under.

Known for her strength against the clock, Brown also began to show her abilities in one-day classics by winning the 2020 Brabantsje Pijl and finishing second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

In 2021, she took her first WorldTour victory with a solo attack at Brugge-De Panne. She followed that with third place in the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Brown made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games, narrowly missing the podium when she finished fourth in the time trial.

In 2022, Brown returned from a shoulder injury to win her second time trial national title. She then represented Australia at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, where she won gold in the individual time trial and helped Georgia Baker win the road race.

She won her first world championship medal at home in Wollongong, where she placed second in the time trial behind Ellen van Dijk by 13 seconds. She would reprise her performance a year later, taking silver in 2023 behind Chloe Dygert by just 6 seconds.

Also in 2023, Brown claimed her third time trial national championship before winning a WorldTour stage race for the first time, conquering the Tour Down Under overall.

In 2024, Brown made it four career national titles in the time trial. She then confirmed her promise in the classics by winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, becoming the first Australian woman to win one of the prestigious races traditionally referred to as the ‘Monuments’.

After announcing she would retire at the end of the year, Brown won the gold medal in the individual time trial at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In doing so, she became the first Australian woman to medal in the Olympic ITT, and the first Australian (man or woman) to win gold in that event.

Other results have included back-to-back GC wins at the Bretagne Ladies Tour, a solo victory at Grand Prix du Morbihan, and stage wins at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, the Women’s Tour, and Tour of Scandinavia.

Club: St Kilda Cycling Club