Cycling
20 August, 2024
Former local leads team to gold at Olympics
For Tim Decker, a gold medal at the Olympics in Paris was reward for a lifetime of work. And the 51-year-old began that lifetime of work in Horsham when at five he discovered BMX. Decker led the Australian men's pursuit team to gold - the first time the country has claimed the event win in 20 years.
Conor Leahy, Kelland O'Brien, Oliver Bleddyn and Sam Welsford got the win over Great Britain in the final in a time of 3:42.067, crossing the line in front of their opposition who recorded a time of 3:44.394.
The group were the fastest during the rounds, breaking the World Record against defending Olympic champions Italy in the lead up to the final.
Chatting to Wimmera Mallee News the day after the Australian team arrived back on home soil, a chilled-out Decker said he was anticipating some time to relax now the event was finished.
But he admitted he was the complete opposite during the games.
"I didn't sleep much over those days (of competition), so I am catching up now," Decker, who was born in Natimuk, said.
Decker had the time though to chat about his cycling passion and how Horsham influenced him as a child growing up in the Wimmera.
"The first time I rode a bike was when I was four, and from that point I just had a fascination with riding bikes, the good sense of challenge, competition and freedom," Decker said.
"I got into BMX racing as a youngster when I was in Horsham, and raced all around country Victoria and as I got a bit older than led to track at the Horsham velodrome."
It was Decker's Uncle, in Gordon Taylor, that introduced him to the discipline to build up to compete in the Australian BMX Championships to attempt to qualify for the World Championships.
"I got pretty hooked on track, I think I was 16 at the time, and converted more over to cycling, being road and track," he said.
Decker's first coaching gig was with his brother, and it grew from there as Decker said he always had a passion for coaching athletes.
He lived in Horsham until 21, before moving to Bendigo to improve his abilities in both coaching and cycling, along with further his study.
Decker coached athletes vying for a position in the 2008 Olympics and had athletes competing at the 2012 Olympics.
He took over the coaching of the Australian pursuit team in 2013, only having the one year off since, to freshen up.
Decker said claiming gold at this Olympics was a task ground out over many years.
"I was the head coach in 2016, in 2020 and this year and it's been a lifetime of work, but I always had the belief we had the athletes to get across the line first." he said.
"One of the athletes who is part of the team, I consider him one of the best pursuiters and he was with me in 2016 when we got silver, with me in 2020 when we got bronze and finally he got his gold medal in 2024."
And of course, the achievement came after a lot of preparation.
"I arrived home yesterday, and I think that was day 227th of the year and I have been away from my family for 105 of those," Decker said.
"It's been a big year of choices we had to make to create the best opportunity for these athletes to perform, and that meant being in Europe for a lot of the year, sharing the role a bit with our other coaches for endurance, but it's an ask, and it's not just won in the last eight weeks.
"Sam Welsford had been involved in three Olympic preparations now and has finally got his gold medal, Conor Leahy and Kelland O'Brien have been involved in two and this is Olly Bleddyn first campaign he has been involved in."
Although coaches of Olympic medal winning teams aren't awarded a medal, one of the riders, in O'Brien, was full of praise for Decker.
"A lot of strategy was peaking for the games, and I think we’ve done that really well, we have a great team here, but we wouldn’t be anything without our coach Tim Decker, a massive thanks to him and to everyone back home," O'Brien said.
Decker said the challenge of competing at the Olympics in the pursuit as a team is unlike any other.
"It's spread over three days and is actually quite challenging mentally on the athletes and coaches mind because you have to be able to hold your nerve, preserve your energy mentally and the athletes need to be able to get everything out of their system in under four minutes once a day, which is actually quite tough," he said.
"The area we went into with the most questions was around qualifying, we knew we were in a good place, but qualifying, there is only one team on the track, and we haven't seen the other nations and what they have been doing for the last six months because there has been no team pursuit competition since the World Cup, which ended for us in March.
"There is a bit of stress around where you think you are in qualifying and once we did that and we qualified first, that really built our confidence."
Decker said the confidence was boosted further as they broke the record in Round One and qualified for the final, but it was a double-edged sword.
"We were quite on our game for that one, and 3.40.7, that went every bit as quick as it looked, but knowing that we went that fast, we knew we used a lot of energy for that to happen," he said.
Decker said the final came down to "D and G" - determination and guts, and who could hold it together the best under the pressure.
"We knew it was going to be tight, but we also knew we could hold it together the entire way to the line, whereas GB had been falling away in the last lap or two in their previous rides," he said.
"At six laps to go, I stand on the side of the track and give the schedule to the boys, and I was watching the GB team, and watching our team, and we were two tenths up, but we had been two tenths up for a little while, so I knew we were right in there for being successful, and that's the way it played out, GB again fell apart, behind at the time.
"Everyone was hurting but getting to that lap then seeing them cross the line, it seemed like forever but it was well worth the wait."