'I didn’t realise I was a trailblazer': Vale Iris Dixon (1931–2022)

Cycling legend and AusCycling Hall of Fame member Iris Dixon has died aged 91.

Iris Dixon (née Bent) began racing as a 14-year-old in 1945. She went on to win 16 Australian titles on the track and road.

The Victorian wunderkind was crowned Australia’s Champion of Champions three times, including in 1951, when she swept all five national titles on New Year’s Day in Bundaberg: the 500m sprint, half-mile, one-mile, three-mile and five-mile races.

Such was her dominance, Dixon won the latter two races by more than a lap.

Dixon is considered a pioneer of Australian cycling, pointing the way during a time when female cyclists could not compete at World Championships and the Olympic Games.

Aside from her prodigious talent as an athlete, Dixon was known for her happy-go-lucky personality and sharp wit.

Despite retiring from racing, Dixon kept pedalling well into her 80s with a social group self-named the ‘Golden Oldies’, based at the Preston Cycling Club’s track in Melbourne.

She was inducted into the AusCycling Hall of Fame in 2016.

“I am very humbled, I didn’t think it would ever happen to me,” Dixon said at the time. “I didn’t realise at the time that I was a trailblazer, I just raced.”

Photos supplied by Ray Bowles