Conor's Story
West Australian Conor Leahy has coffee and cake to thank for his career as an elite track cyclist.
As a child, the five-time men’s individual pursuit champion would join his triathlete dad on bike rides on the agreement that there would be coffee and cake along the way.
"I started riding with my dad to coffee shops just because I wanted coffee and cake," Conor said.
"I was playing footy at the time, but then started riding more and more and had my first proper race when I was 13 and I loved it."
In 2014, Conor joined Peel District Cycling Club, where Olympic gold medallist Peter Dawson quickly recognised his potential.
"Peter approached my dad and asked if I'd like to come do a few training sessions at his house on the stationary bike,” Conor said. “I did, and then he became my coach."
In 2017, he won bronze in the team and individual pursuit at the Oceania Championships before defeating Lucas Plapp a year later in the individual pursuit final. Conor won back-to-back Oceania Championships individual pursuits in 2018 and 2019, adding an Oceania team pursuit title in 2019.
Later that year, he claimed bronze in the team pursuit at a UCI World Cup meeting in Hong Kong. In 2020 he won his first national individual pursuit title. The following year he was a reserve for the Australian team at the Tokyo Olympics.
In his third consecutive individual pursuit national title in 2022, Conor broke Jack Bobridge’s decade-old Australian record. He then teamed up with Josh Duffy to win the madison, a result they repeated at the Oceania Championships in March.
The pair joined Graeme Frislie and James Moriarty to win the Oceania and Nations Cup team pursuit crowns, and he was part of the team pursuit that won gold at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada, that year.
Conor tasted double medal success on his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham, claiming bronze in both the team and individual pursuit.
After teaming up with Josh Duffy, Graeme Frislie, Lucas Plapp and James Moriarty to defeat Wales in the bronze-medal ride-off, he then beat England’s Charlie Tanfield in the race for individual bronze.
Conor has finished in the top 10 in the individual time trial at the national championships for the past three years, including a third-place finish in 2022.
In 2024, Conor extended his reign of dominance in the individual pursuit at the national championships to five titles. He remains the only Australian in history to record a sub-4:10 time for the event.
Conor is studying for a degree in exercise and sport science at the University of South Australia.
