Leigh Hoffman

Leigh Hoffman was in year 10 at Samaritan College in Whyalla, in rural South Australia, when a conversation with Olympic gold medallist Brett Aitken put him on the path towards an Olympic debut and possibly a medal of his own in Paris. 

Leigh and his family had been making the nine-hour round trip to Adelaide every weekend for training when Aitken suggested it was time to make the move permanent.

Brett – who won gold on the velodrome at the Sydney Olympics – was coaching Leigh at the South Australian Sports Institute and knew he had a serious talent on his hands.

"We were driving to Adelaide every weekend during Year 10," Leigh said. "We'd leave Friday after school and drive back Sunday afternoon.

"And it was Brett who said to mum in 2016, 'I'd hate for there to be an Olympian left in Whyalla', so that was our time and we looked at schools and Immanuel College took me in, which was great."

At that point, Leigh had been riding competitively for four years, having followed his older brother to the local velodrome, 2km from the family home.

He initially wanted to be a triathlete, but found his speed and power better suited to shorter distances, so track sprinting it was.

State records began tumbling by U17s and Leigh was invited to join the state squad.

"That's when I thought I've got a future in the sport if I want to pursue it," he said.

"In under-19s especially when I was breaking these 200m records that were held by people like Matthew Glaetzer that was an eye opener, because you look at the career he's had, and that's when I thought I had some kick in me."

By 2020 he joined the Australian Institute of Sport track cycling program and forced his way into the national team sprint line-up. Two years later Leigh was the best team sprint starter in the world – as evidenced by his standing lap of 16.94, which remains the unofficial world record. 

Like a track sprinter in athletics, a team sprint starter on the velodrome can spend four years training for 16 seconds at an Olympic Games.

Hence Leigh's job is very specific. Get out of the start gate as fast as he can, then produce as much power as possible for one lap to send his teammates into the remaining two laps as fast as he can.

"I'm all-in for the start, so my training is very specialised in terms of how my whole week is structured," he said.

"Lots of gate starts and motorbike efforts to hit max power every session basically."

A typical training week involves four gym sessions where they are squatting upwards of 190kg, three track sessions and an ergo session on the stationary bike on weekends.

"With the level we train at, right now the gym is pushed a lot and it definitely takes a toll on the body, but it will be worth it in the end," Leigh said. 

It was well worth it in 2022. After winning the team sprint at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Glasgow, Leigh won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham alongside Matthew Richardson and Glaetzer.

Later that same year, Leigh was part of Australia's team that won the team sprint world title in France.

Leigh, Richardson, Thomas Cornish and Glaetzer broke a 10-year drought since Australia's last rainbow jersey in the event – in Melbourne in 2012.

The same team then went on to win silver at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow.

When the sprint team hit the track in Paris, they will be aiming to end an incredible run of five consecutive fourth-place finishes at an Olympic Games, which has denied Australia a team sprint medal since Sydney in 2000.

Leigh travelled to Tokyo with the team for the last Games in 2021, but only as a reserve, an experience he says will serve him well in Paris.

"Having that experience means my pre-race nerves are now gone, these days it's all about going through the motions," he said. 

"Going into the next Olympic cycle it's definitely helped and given me a heap of confidence. 

"And winning that world title in 2022 broke a 10-year drought which was a huge confidence boost for us all, it was amazing." 

In his downtime away from the track, Leigh fancies himself with a tattoo pen and has a few unique markings.

There's a shark on one foot, a snake and a rose on the other, some viking symbols and the lyrics from his favourite Green Day song, Jesus of Suburbia.

"I picked it up during COVID when I was bored," he said. "I might end up tattooing the Olympic rings on my foot or something. And a world record would be nice as well."