Annette Edmondson (born 12 December 1991) is an Australian former cyclist who competed on the track with Cycling Australia's High Performance Unit (HPU). She also competed on the road for the Wiggle High5 team between 2015 and 2018.
Her greatest successes were the three gold medals she won at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in the omnium and team pursuit,[1] a competition in which she also secured further silver medals in the omnium (2012) and team pursuit (2012 and 2013). Edmondson also competed in the London 2012 Olympics, securing a bronze medal for Australia in the women's Omnium[1] and finishing in fourth place in the Team pursuit. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she claimed a silver in the individual pursuit and a gold in the scratch race, her first gold medal at an international level and her first Commonwealth title. In addition, she has competed at the National Track Championships with gold medal results at an elite level since 2012 in multiple disciplines.
Early life
Edmondson was born in Adelaide, but due to her parents' careers at Royal Dutch Shell, she spent the early part of her childhood living in Malaysia, Oman and the Netherlands. However, when she was six, the family returned to her father's native land of Australia.
She attended the Victor Harbor Primary School, south of Adelaide, South Australia, later moving to St John's Grammar School in the Adelaide Hills where she took up numerous pursuits, including soccer and athletics.
Career
When she was 13, the South Australian Sports Institute visited her school and she was identified as having the physical attributes to have a potential career in cycling. After a year in the Talent Search Program, her first major win came at the 2006 National Junior Track Championships where she won two bronze medals in the Under 17 500m Time Trial and Sprint. From that point, she began to specialise in sprint cycling and as a junior won sprint events at a National and Oceania level.
In 2010, she took part in her first elite level National Championships finishing with silvers in the Team sprint, Keirin and 500m TT as well as a bronze in the Individual sprint.
However, Edmondson began to lose interest in the sport and took a break from cycling. In spite of her doubt, she returned to training just four months later, but she wanted a change and therefore made the switch from sprint to endurance cycling. Eight months later, she had successfully made the switch by becoming the Australian Omnium and Scratch Race champion.
Her first World Championships came in 2012 at the UCI World Championships in Melbourne in which she achieved silver in both the Omnium and Team Pursuit. These results helped her secure a place in the 2012 Australian Olympic Team.
In London, she took part in two events of the Olympic Track Cycling Schedule. In the Team Pursuit, the Australian squad secured 4th place, missing out on the bronze medal. It was her performance in the 6 events of the Omnium resulted in her claiming the bronze medal.[2]
After the Olympics, in 2013, she signed a professional road contract with Orica–AIS, in her first season with the team, she secured a major victory taking 1st overall in the Tour of Chongming Island.[3] Her and teammates took 3rd in the 2013 World Road Race Championships TTT in Florence, Italy.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Edmondson claimed a silver in the Individual Pursuit along with fellow athlete Amy Cure who took a bronze in the event. On the 3rd day of competition (26 July 2014), Edmondson took part in the 10 km Scratch Race, where she raced to victory taking her 1st Commonwealth Games Gold Medal and again fellow athlete Amy Cure also succeeded coming out with a silver medal from the event.
On 22 October 2014, Wiggle–Honda announced that Edmondson had signed with the team for the 2015 season,[4] where she remained until the team disbanded at the end of the 2018 season.
Alongside her road racing, she continued to compete in track cycling. At the 2015 World Championships, she won gold in the omnium and the team pursuit.[3]
At the 2016 Olympics, she competed in the team pursuit (the Australian team finished 5th) and the omnium (finishing in 8th).[2]
Edmondson retired from competition after the conclusion of the 2021 UCI Track Champions League in December of that year, having finished third in the women's endurance standings.[1]
Edmondson has also had an interest in charity work from a young age. Her first recognition of her work came in 2007 in which she became "Make Indigenous Poverty History Youth Ambassador for SA". Since then, she has made personal visits to deprived areas, such as parts of Indonesia to give up her time as volunteer. She is fluent in Indonesian.[6]
Edmondson has two brothers; her younger brother Alex Edmondson is also a professional cyclist.[7]
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