Jason Queally

Jason Queally

Jason Paul Queally (born 11 May 1970) is an English track cyclist. He won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Born at Great Heywood, Staffordshire, Queally attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School, where he was part of the swimming squad in the mid-1980s, later representing Lancaster and British Universities in water polo while a student at Lancaster University, where he earned a BSc in Biological Science. He took up cycle-racing at 25. In 1996, he nearly died in an accident at Meadowbank cycling track in Edinburgh when an 18-inch sliver of the wooden track entered his chest via his armpit.

In October 2001 Queally competed in the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada on the Blueyonder recumbent bicycle, built largely from carbon fibre by Reynard Motorsport to a design by Chris Field. Queally maintained 64.34 mph (103.55 km/h) over the 200m timed section of the course, a European record. The winner, Sam Whittingham, achieved 80.55 mph (129.63 km/h).

Although Olympic champion, Queally was not selected for the 1 km time trial at the 2004 Summer Olympics, competing only in the team sprint, in which Great Britain team was eliminated in the first round by Germany, the eventual winner, despite posting the second fastest time of the competition.

In 2009, Queally was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.

Queally retired from able-bodied cycling after failing to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He subsequently worked with Paralympic cyclist Anthony Kappes with the aim of competing together on a tandem at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. However he returned to able-bodied competition when he received a call up to the British squad for the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. After not being selected for the 2012 Summer Olympics he rejoined the British paralympic cycling squad as a pilot for the tandem events in November 2012.