AT 39, CYCLE QUEEN LANDS SOLO DEBUT
BREEANNA HARGRAVE’S PATH TO THE GAMES WAS FAR FROM SIMPLE BUT SHE IS FIRMLY ON TRACK TO MAKE A WHEEL BIG IMPRESSION
BREANNA Hargrave describes it as an “unusual situation”.
But that might be underplaying her journey to riding for Australia in the women’s sprint events at the Commonwealth Games velodrome. The South Australian has competed at a Commonwealth Games before, being the pilot for para-cyclist Brandie O’Connor in the tandem event in Glasgow. Eight-years later, and at the age of 39, Hargrave competes for Australia in her own right. “It is a little bit of a different one,” she said. “For me in my head it is the first time I’ve achieved this big goal of representing Australia. It took me to 39 to achieve something that I’ve been trying to for nearly my whole life, so this Comm Games is going to be special. I’m so stoked.” Making her “debut” at the Commonwealth Games in her late 30s is remarkable, given she had been told on numerous occasions for almost a decade that she was too old.
“After the tandem (in Glasgow) I sort of got told you were a bit old because I was 30 at the time,” she said. “So then I decided I was going to try endurance and I got back into SASI (the South Australian Sports Institute) for one year and then sort of got told that I was too old again and then since then I have sort of been doing it on my own.
“I remember having a chat to one of the Aussie coaches a couple of years ago, she wasn’t an Aussie coach then, and I remember it was like, yeah, age is a thing, but she said that every athlete has something difficult that they need to deal with and yours is that your age is an issue and people will always mention that and it will always hang over you.
“So you need to work out how you change people’s opinions.
“And all I could think of was to be so good, and get the results, that my age has to be ignored.”
But not being in the system can make it difficult in terms of getting time to practice on the track, so Hargrave shifted to the road.
And while the Covid-19 pandemic hit many athletes hard, it ended up being what Hargrave needed.
“In the pandemic I couldn’t work as much because I’m a physio and work shut down a little bit, so I ended up setting up a room at home with Zwift,” she said. “I had some gym stuff in there and a track trainer.
“I ended up having a cracker season coming out of it, but that was on the road, and I just randomly did a state champs to fill in for the sprint (on the track) because they didn’t have the numbers and they said, can you come out and do the sprint on the track because we don’t have enough numbers and I said, yeah why not.
“I did the best time I’ve ever done by far and I thought, wow, I think I really need to focus on this and then I managed to join in on some of the SASI track sessions and it just went from there. It ended up being the best couple of years of my life.”
And while she will be 41, she has the Paris 2024 Olympics t in sight.
“Absolutely, I definitely do,” she said. “I think because I started this sport late my body hasn’t broken down from doing this sport for too long. I kind of feel like even though I’m 39 I’m nowhere near finished.”