Sam Welsford

Sam Welsford’s love of the bicycle began early. At age four, he watched his father go out for rides, and it wasn’t long before young Sam asked his parents for a bike of his own to ride along the Swan River in Perth.

In his junior years, Welsford won back-to-back under-19 team pursuit world titles with Australia in 2013 and 2014, as well as picking up medals in the omnium and Madison.

The West Australian quickly found his place among the big boys: in 2016, he won his first elite world championship with the Australian squad in the team pursuit. Welsford was there again a year later when Australia defended their world title.

In 2016, Welsford made his Olympic debut in Rio, where he won silver in the team pursuit alongside Jack Bobridge, Alex Edmondson, Michael Hepburn and Callum Scotson.

His next big result was on home soil at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, where Welsford not only won gold in the team pursuit, but also claimed an individual gold medal in the scratch race.

More was to come in 2019, when Welsford helped Australia regain their team pursuit crown at the UCI World Championships in Poland. Barely half an hour after celebrating gold with his teammates, Welsford became a dual world champion when he also won the scratch race.

Welsford made his second Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020, where he won bronze in the team pursuit alongside Leigh Howard, Kelland O’Brien, Luke Plapp and Alex Porter.

He has won numerous national titles alongside his glittering representative career, including the individual pursuit (2016, 2018), scratch race (2017), team pursuit (2017), omnium (2018, 2019), and Madison (2017, 2020, 2021).

In 2022, Welsford embarked on his first season as a professional road cyclist, although he did win the criterium national championship back in 2020.

Signing for Team DSM, he took third place in the Flemish classic Scheldeprijs and earned his first pro victory in a bunch sprint at the Tour of Turkey. 2023 saw Welsford take four more wins on the road, including his first WorldTour victory at the Renewi Tour.

After transferring to BORA-Hansgrohe, Welsford started 2024 in scintillating fashion, winning three stages of the Tour Down Under to confirm his status as one of the world’s fastest sprinters.

He will make his third Olympic Games appearance at Paris 2024.