Grace Brown and Saya Sakakibara have been jointly awarded the Sir Hubert Opperman Trophy, with the 2024 AusCycling Cyclist of the Year award shared after both delivered a series of powerful results on top of gold medals at the Olympic Games.
Sakakibara added the UCI BMX racing World Cup overall along with wins across four rounds to gold in Paris. Brown added the time trial world title to her Olympic triumph in the discipline, put Liège-Bastogne-Liège on her win tally and she was also part of Australia’s winning mixed relay team at the Road World Championships.
“Both Saya and Grace stood out with their exceptional performances across the entire year that culminated in their Olympic gold medals, won in absolutely dominating form,” said Brad McGee, a member of the AusCycling Awards Committee. “Saya, going through unbeaten in all the rounds and taking the gold medal. Grace, winning by a minute and a half.”
The last time the award, known as the Oppy medal, was shared was in 2000 when Brett Aitken and Scott McGrory shared the prize.
“2024 has been a momentous year for me on so many levels and it feels very special to have my achievements recognised by Australian cycling,” said Brown. “The list of previous Oppy winners is full of our sport’s heroes, and it’s a huge honour to add my name to that list.”
Former winners of the Oppy include Cadel Evans, Caroline Buchanan, jai Hindley, Richie Porte and Anna Meares.
Brown also, of course, won the women’s road cyclist of the year while the men’s road category was taken out by Ben O’Connor who finished fourth on the world rankings in 2024 after taking a long list of impressive results that included a Vuelta a España stage win and second overall as well as runner up spots at the the UAE Tour and the Tour of Alps and also the silver medal behind Tadej Pogačar at the World Championships road race.
“When we looked at the large amount of performances, we took a moment, stood back, and went, ‘Wow. Let’s just appreciate the year that’s been’,” McGee said.
“Extraordinary across multiple disciplines, para-cycling and able-bodied. Multiple gold medals from Paris. That’s before we dive into the professional ranks on the road: Ben O’Connor and non-Olympic results, World Championships and World Cups in the BMX. It’s been an extraordinary year.”
AusCycling elite rider of the year winners
- Cyclist of the year – Grace Brown and Saya Sakakibara
- Team – Men’s Team Pursuit: Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy, Kelland O’Brien and Sam Welsford
- Women’s BMX Freestyle – Natalya Diehm
- Men’s BMX Freestyle – Logan Martin
- Women’s BMX Racing – Saya Sakakibara
- Men’s BMX Racing – Izaac Kennedy
- Women’s Mountain Bike – Rebecca Henderson
- Men’s Mountain Bike – Ryan Gilchrist
- Women’s Road Para-cyclist – Lauren Parker
- Men’s Road Para-cyclist – Alistair Donohoe
- Women’s Track Para-cyclist – Emily Petricola
- Men’s Track Para-cyclist – Korey Boddington
- Women’s Road – Grace Brown
- Men’s Road – Ben O’Connor
- Women’s Track – Georgia Baker
- Men’s Track – Matthew Glaetzer
- Women’s Cyclocross – Isabella Flint
- Men’s Cyclocross – Tristan Nash
- Women’s Gravel Cyclist – Tiffany Cromwell
- Men’s Gravel Cyclist – Brendan Johnston
- Women’s Esports Cyclist – Kate Trdin
- Men’s Esports – Josh Harris
