Lydia Gurley
Cycling
BIOGRAPHY
Lydia Gurley was a travelling reserve for the Ireland women’s track cycling team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, having played a central role in qualifying Ireland for the Games.
She and Lydia Boylan won European Madison gold together in 2017 and qualified Ireland’s track cycling places at the 2020 World Championships in Berlin by finishing 11th in the women’s Madison – a physically demanding race during which Boylan was brought down in a crash but both riders remounted to secure the quota spot.
When it came to the Games themselves, Cycling Ireland selected Shannon McCurley and Emily Kay for the women’s Madison, with Gurley travelling to Tokyo as reserve. Gurley was born in Athenry, Co. Galway and spent part of her childhood in Brunei and Canada before returning to Athenry, then relocating to Canada for university, where she completed a Masters degree at the University of British Columbia. She only took up cycling aged 25 in 2010, initially through triathlons. She won two World Cup events in 2017 and 2019 and had put a PhD in renewable energy at the University of Birmingham on hold to cycle full-time.
She retired after Tokyo.
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