Lara Gillespie is a Paris Olympian and two-time World Champion on the track, winning the Elimination Race in 2025 and the Points Race at the 2026 UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai.
She also won silver in the scratch race at the 2026 World Champs - finishing centimetres behind Lorena Wiebes at the line. She is the first Irish cyclist to win an elite European track title, taking gold in the Elimination Race at the 2025 European Track Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
She rode three events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - the team pursuit, the madison and the omnium - finishing tenth in the omnium on the closing day of the Games as the last Team Ireland athlete to compete. In the team pursuit, Ireland’s first qualification in the event, the quartet set a national record of 4:12.447 in qualifying and placed ninth.
Gillespie won a bronze medal in the Points Race at the elite World Championships in Denmark, a silver in the scratch race at the Shanghai Worlds, and has amassed a large collection of medals at junior and under-23 level. She has won the Le Samyn one-day classic on the road and holds two Irish national road race titles. She is from Enniskerry, County Wicklow.
Cycling
