My story, written by Ed Lowe.

I was terrible at cycling to begin with.

I first started cycling at around the age of four. I used to crash into stuff all the time. I just constantly barrelled into hedges, the back of trees, you name it.

I used to hate cycling until I was, like, seven years old. But then my dad and I watched the Tour de France one time, and Mark Cavendish won one of the stages. I saw that and was like, “I want to do that”.

And yeah, sure, I haven’t quite succeeded like Cav, but that was the moment cycling clicked for me. After that I started to do road cycling, which I wasn’t great at, and then I moved over to track endurance, but I wasn’t very good at that either. So, then I was like, “alright, well, what else can I do?”

I found out then that I was pretty good at track sprinting, and I’ve kind of stuck with that ever since. It’s kind of because of the road and track cycling that I found out that I was a good sprinter. When I made it to the end of a road race, or if there was a sprint at the end of a track endurance race, I’d always win it.

With sprinting, it’s always felt like what my body was made to do. I worked my way up the ranks from junior academy to senior, and then up to podium at the end of 2023. And now… Here I am, on the cusp of my first Olympic Games.

I think that one of the main reasons why I’ve got to where I am now is because of the support. My dad has always been a massive cycling fan, and the rest of my family have been super supportive throughout all of this. I really appreciate them being there for me. The same goes for the coaches I’ve had along the way as well – I wouldn’t be where I am now without them.

It's quite surreal to be where I am, to be honest. I didn’t expect it at all, and it’s been quite a long, busy 12 months or so because I’ve been putting everything into my cycling to try and make it work.

The Track Nations Cup in Adelaide in February was a real turning point. We got a bronze medal in the team sprint against some good teams, which I was super happy with, and it helped to prove that I could compete at the same level as some of the other big names. We followed that up as a team with gold at Track Nationals and a silver at the Milton Track Nations Cup, both of which I was really pleased about.

It's been a crazy journey, and I didn’t expect this, but I’m so excited to be competing in Paris this summer.