AusCycling announces Podium-level athlete categorisations for 2025

AusCycling is pleased to announce the athletes categorised as Podium, Podium Ready, and Podium Potential for 2025 in the Olympic disciplines of BMX racing, BMX freestyle, track, road, and mountain bike XCO, and the Paralympic disciplines of para-cycling.

The AusCycling categorisation framework contains 88 Podium, Podium Ready, and Podium Potential categorised athletes in 2025, along with athletes categorised as Emerging or Developing from the 2024/25 Emerging and Developing categorisation announcement in May.

Athlete categorisation is a system used to identify, track, and prioritise talented athletes with the greatest potential to contribute to Australia winning medals consistently and to continually improve Australia’s standing at current and future pinnacle events.

These pinnacle events include the Olympics, Paralympics, UCI World Championships, and on occasion, Commonwealth Games.

AusCycling follows the National Athlete Categorisation Framework (NACF) developed by the Australian Institute of Sport.

The NACF has been refreshed for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games cycle and beyond following a review as part of Horizon 1 of the HP 2032+ Strategy.

The critical change to the NACF is an elevated focus on performance potential criteria when categorising athletes at a sport level. There will be a greater reliance on National Sporting Organisation evidence informed What it Takes to Win and Athlete Development Frameworks to ensure all athlete categorisation decisions are supported by evidence.

The changes provide an opportunity for the system to focus on athletes who demonstrate a trajectory to podium success at pinnacle events.

AusCycling also wishes to pay tribute to Grace Brown, Carol Cooke and David Nicholas, three long-standing categorised athletes and members of the ARA Australian Cycling Team who have retired from national team representation.

Brown’s swansong season was nothing short of spectacular this year after achieving the individual time trial Olympic gold and world championship double.

The Victorian added a second rainbow jersey to her collection in the mixed relay team time trial at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships to close out her green and gold career that began in 2018.

Cooke made her ARA Australian Cycling Team para-cycling debut in 2011 and won three Paralympic gold medals and a silver medal across three Games.

The T2 classified Victorian’s achievements extend to 15 medals won at UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, nine of which were rainbow jerseys.

Nicholas has called time on a 13-year ARA Australian Cycling Team career.

The C3 classified Queenslander represented Australia at three Paralympic Games, winning two gold medals and two bronze medals.

Nicholas won 17 world championship medals on the road and track, nine of which were rainbow jerseys.

Athlete categorisations – January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025 

Podium 

BMX Racing 

• Saya Sakakibara – NSWIS 

BMX Freestyle 

• Natalya Diehm – QAS 
• Logan Martin – QAS 

Track Sprint 

• Thomas Cornish – NSWIS 
• Matthew Glaetzer – SASI 
• Leigh Hoffman – SASI 

Track Endurance 

• Georgia Baker – TIS
• Alexandra Manly – SASI
• Oliver Bleddyn – SASI
• Conor Leahy – WAIS
• Kelland O’Brien – VIS
• Sam Welsford – WAIS

Road 

• Ben O’Connor – WAIS

Para-cycling

• Alana Forster – VIS
• Jessica Gallagher/Caitlin Ward – VIS/SASI
• Paige Greco – QAS
• Meg Lemon – SASI
• Lauren Parker – NSWIS
• Emily Petricola – VIS
• Amanda Reid - SASI
• Gordon Allan – NSWIS
• Korey Boddington – QAS
• Alistair Donohoe – VIS
• Darren Hicks – SASI
• Michael Shippley – QAS

Podium Ready

BMX Racing 

• Izaac Kennedy – QAS
• Lauren Reynolds – WAIS

BMX Freestyle 

• Brandon Loupos – QAS

Track Sprint 

• Kristina Clonan – QAS
• Alessia McCaig – VIS
• Molly McGill – QAS
• Chloe Moran – SASI
• Ryan Elliott – QAS

Track Endurance

• Sophie Edwards – SASI
• Maeve Plouffe – SASI
• Josh Duffy – TIS
• James Moriarty – QAS

Road 

• Neve Bradbury – VIS
• Ruby Roseman-Gannon – VIS
• Amanda Spratt – NSWIS
• Kaden Groves – QAS
• Jai Hindley – WAIS
• Michael Matthews – ACTAS 
• Jay Vine – ACTAS

Para-cycling 

• Erin Rowell – VIS
• Stuart Jones – NSWIS
• Kane Perris/Luke Zaccaria – WAIS/WAIS
• Beau Wootton – SASI

Podium Potential 

BMX Racing 

• Isabell May – VIS 
• Sienna Pal – NSWIS 
• Teya Rufus – QAS 
• Jesse Asmus – QAS 
• Jordan Callum – WAIS 
• Oliver Moran – NSWIS 
• Bodi Turner – VIS 

BMX Freestyle 

• Sarah Nicki – QAS 
• Alec Danelutti – QAS 
• Samual Grace – QAS 
• Jaie Toohey – QAS 

Track Sprint 

• Daniel Barber – NSWIS 
• Byron Davies – QAS 
• Kalinda Robinson – QAS 
• Sophie Watts – QAS 

Track Endurance 

• Alli Anderson – SASI 
• Sally Carter – WAIS 
• Claudia Marcks – ACTAS 
• Alyssa Polites – VIS 
• Keira Will – NSWIS 
• Felicity Wilson-Haffenden – TIS 
• Blake Agnoletto – VIS 
• John Carter – WAIS 
• Wil Holmes – SASI 
• Liam Walsh – QAS 

Road 

• Brodie Chapman – QAS 
• Sarah Gigante – VIS 
• Matthew Dinham – NSWIS 
• Hamish McKenzie – TIS 
• Lucas Plapp – VIS 
• Michael Storer – WAIS 

Mountain Bike XCO 

• Rebecca Henderson – ACTAS 

Para-cycling 

• Sharon Boyd – VIS 
• Tahlia Clayton-Goodie – VIS 
• Emma Mickle – VIS 
• Grant Allen – SASI 
• Alex Welsh – QAS 
• Kyle Willis – QAS 

The next round of Podium-level categorisations will take place in late 2025. 

The next round of Emerging and Developing categorisations will take place in April 2025.