St Kilda Cycling Club members are celebrating after club member and two-time Olympian Grace Brown won the gold medal in the women’s Time Trial at the Paris Olympics last week.
“We are immensely proud of Grace’s flawless performance,” said Tom Reynolds, President of the St Kilda Cycling Club.
Grace announced in June that she plans to retire at the end of the year, capping off her illustrious career (and the best year of her professional career) on the highest note possible. She has achieved the ultimate dream of going out on top, with an Olympic gold medal as the crowning jewel of her career.
This year she has also won the National Road Championships TT, the individual time trial stage of the Tour de Bretagne Femmes, and the famed Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes.
Grace was a late starter to the cycling world after spending her early athletic years as a runner. Grace took up the sport in August 2015 when she joined the St Kilda Cycling Club for its well-known support of developing female athletes, on the recommendation of friends.
While Grace has conquered the world stage, club members eagerly look forward to seeing a post-retirement Grace Brown join our Wednesday fast ride. The ride departs from Luna Park at 5.45am sharp all year and gold medal or not, we leave on time!
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Jem is a true gem
Jemima Montag fell in love with race walking while taking part in Little Athletics in Albert Park.
A professional athlete, she competed at the Tokyo Olympic (placed 6th) and won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
In Paris, her time of 1.25.25 placed her third, just 6 seconds behind the silver winner and 30 secs behind gold – that’s after 20 kms!
An Elwood local, she grew up in a sports-oriented family, her mother competed in athletics (heptathlete, 400m hurdler), and her father played Australian rules football and cricket (met at the 1991 Maccabiah Games in Israel). After struggles with athletic events such as jumping and throwing, she realised she had slow twitch muscles and found her way into the technical endurance event of race walking.
Her philosophy is to “find your purpose… your ‘ikigai’ and go fearlessly in the direction of whatever ignites that fire.”
Next time you see a walker along the Elwood foreshore imagine that it could be Jemima or someone else inspired to compete on the world stage.
Or they could just be having purposeful fun!
Bravo to all participants. Aussie Aussie Aussie!
