James Moriarty

James Moriarty is a gifted team and individual pursuiter who is determined to play a major role in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games campaign after travelling to Paris 2024 as the reserve for the gold medal winning team.

Moriarty grew up in Brisbane and took up cycling at the age of eight after dabbling in triathlons with his parents.

Two years later he added track cycling to his road racing and from there his talent was cultivated by the successful Balmoral Cycling Club junior development program and the Queensland Academy of Sport.

Moriarty earned selection to his first Australian Cycling Team for the 2018 UCI Junior Track World Championships as a first-year under-19, but that dream was put on hold for 12 months after breaking his collarbone on the eve of competition in Aigle, Switzerland.

His green-and-gold debut finally came at the 2019 UCI Junior Track World Championships in Frankfurt, Germany, where he would finish fifth in the points race and eighth in the Madison with Bill Simpson.

That same year on the road, Moriarty stepped onto the podium at Road Nationals after finishing third in the junior men's individual time trial.

Moriarty was elevated to the Podium Potential Academy at the end of 2020 and relocated to Adelaide.

At the 2021 AusCycling Track National Championships he won silver in the elite men's individual pursuit, losing to Conor Leahy in the final. The TrackNats individual pursuit battle continued in 2023 and 2024, with Moriarty yet to flip the script on Leahy.

2022 was a big year for Moriarty and it started with an elite Australian Cycling Team debut and team pursuit win at the Oceania Track Championships in Brisbane.

A UCI Track Nations Cup debut landed a month later in Milton, Canada, where he was part of the team pursuit win and finished third in the individual pursuit.

His performances led to selection to the Australian team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, as the youngest member of the team pursuit squad that won bronze. Moriarty also finished ninth in the individual pursuit and competed in the scratch race.

Moriarty earned a late call-up for his maiden elite UCI Track World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, replacing Luke Plapp.

After not racing qualifying, the Brisbane product stepped into the team as the starter for the first round and bronze medal final, where Australia was defeated by Denmark. Moriarty also finished 17th in the points race.

The career-firsts jumped back to the road for Moriarty at the start of 2023 courtesy of selection to the Australian National Team for the Tour Down Under, a UCI WorldTour event.

An individual pursuit Oceania title came his way in March and doubled as his first in-competition sub four minutes and 10 seconds performance, finishing in 4:09.955.

After missing selection for the 2023 UCI Track World Championships he powered back into Paris 2024 contention via selection to the Australian Cycling Team for the home Track Nations Cup in Adelaide, and then again in Hong Kong a month later.

Moriarty narrowly missed selection to the four-man team pursuit squad for the Olympics but travelled with the team to Paris as the reserve rider.