Steele Bishop

"Steele Bishop, OAM, was a Kalamunda youngster who dreamed of becoming a world champion cyclist. He won his first state championship at age fifteen and became the youngest Olympic cyclist when he was selected to represent Australia at the Munich Olympics aged just nineteen. He retired at twenty-one – only to return to racing and become world champion at thirty years of age in the individual pursuit, track racing’s toughest challenge and a race where you break or are broken. In the final of the 5000m pursuit in Zurich in 1983, he caught his opponent, Switzerland's Robert Dill-Bundi (the 1980 Olympic pursuit gold medallist) three laps from the finish, a feat almost unheard of in world-class cycling. Bishop is a champion on and off the field. During his early retirement, he served as a full-time firefighter, winning the National Medal for diligent long service to the community in hazardous circumstances, including in times of emergency and national disaster, in direct protection of life and property. Now, he is once again competing on the Masters Cycling Tour, exhibiting his trademark discipline, commitment and will to win. He will be competing in the Australian Masters Track Cycling Championships in April 2019 and the World Track Cycling Championships later in the year. For more than thirty years, his approach to preparation and competition has inspired both elite and recreational cyclists as well as everyday men and women around Australia. Never one to big note himself, he shares his full story for the first time in his memoir Wheels of Steele."