A Lilydale-born Olympian has been recognised for his gold medal heroics in the 2025 Australia Day Awards.
Kelland O’Brien OAM received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for his ‘service to sport as a gold medallist at the Paris Olympic Games 2024.’
Growing up, O’Briend went to Lilydale High School and started his career at Lilydale BMX Club before going on to become a decorated national cyclist.
As part of Australia’s Men’s Team Pursuit in the Paris Games, O’Brien and teammates Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn broke the world record in qualifying with a time of 3:40.730 which obliterated the previous benchmark by more than a second as they triumphed over reigning Olympic champions Italy to progress to the gold medal ride.
Up against arch-rivals Great Britain, O’Briend and the team completed the gold medal ride in an incredible three minutes and 42 seconds to claim their place at the top of the podium.
Barely 0.2 of a second separated the two teams for almost the entire 4km before Australia broke their opponents on the final lap and won by over two seconds.
After the gold medal race, O’Brien said the team had a plan and stuck to it, not putting too much pressure on themselves after the record ride on Tuesday.
“It was a heated battle as it always is, hats off to those guys they rode an amazing race, and we just stuck to our process and nailed it,” he said.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys and Tim (coach Tim Decker) for getting it done, we’ve said all along it’s going to be won on day three and it was.”
O’Brien was part of the Australian Pursuit team in the previous Toko Olympics which claimed the bronze medal, after a broken handlebar and subsequent crash in qualifying robbed them of a shot at gold. He was also a gold medallist with the pursuit team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
O’Brien was contacted for comment.
