Kieron McQuaid was a member of the Irish cycling team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, finishing 40th in the men’s road race and 26th in the 100km team time trial alongside Noel Teggart, Peter Doyle and Liam Horner.

A Dubliner and part of one of Ireland’s great cycling families – his father Jim managed the Mexican cycling team at Munich and his brother Pat was a prominent cyclist and later served as President of the UCI (2005-2013) – McQuaid also competed alongside Pat and future professional star Sean Kelly in the 1975 Rapport Toer stage race in South Africa, under assumed names as part of a ‘Great Britain’ team. The race was not recognised by FIAC, the international governing body of amateur cycling.

When the Irish cyclists were identified by a British newspaper, the IOC, under the presidency of Lord Killanin – himself Irish – declared all three cyclists ineligible for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, a decision confirmed by the IOC executive board in May 1976.

The three were subsequently suspended by the ICF for seven months (later reduced to six), then further reduced on appeal; the suspension was lifted from 16 April 1976.

Despite the suspension ending in time to compete in the Tour of the North, the IOC maintained their exclusion from Montreal. McQuaid went on to become one of the largest importers of bicycles in Ireland.