Kaarle McCulloch

Outline

This presentation by Olympian Kaarle McCulloch will provide you with an insight into the life of an elite athlete.

Showing and talking about much more than the successful podium shots of races won and career highlight, Kaarle will also explore how her losses have contributed to the person she is today both on and off the bike.

Including a behind the scenes look at the physical work that Kaarle has to complete to be the best, as well as taking a look into why Kaarle values balance in her life which has held her especially strong during the disruptions to daily life during COVID19 restrictions.

Breakdown

Part One – About Kaarle, a look into track cycling and what Kaarle has achieved.

Part Two – What does a typical week look like for an elite athlete? A look into some of the specific training completed, including a close look into why specific things are done.

Part Three – Not just about the bike work! Being an elite athlete requires more than riding a bike well or lifting heavy weights. A day in the life is full of meetings, including sport psychology, nutrition, massage, physio, planning etc…Kaarle will run you through her “What Will It Take To Win Plan” for Tokyo2020.

Part Four – Tokyo2020 has been postponed!  What does this mean for Kaarle? How has she dealt with it? What experiences in her career in the past have helped her to overcome/see the bright side of this setback?

Syllabus Links

Stages 3, 4 & 5

PDHPE

Sport, Sports Psychology, Training, Nutrition

Personal & Social Capability

Kaarle McCulloch

Kaarle McCulloch is a professional track cyclist specialising in the Sprint discipline on the track.

Kaarle didn’t think that cycling would be a fun sport when her stepfather convinced her one day to give it a go at the age of 17, because what 17 year old girl wants to ride a bike with no breaks, one gear, that you can’t stop pedaling around a velodrome banked at 45 degrees in the bends AND in a lycra skin-suit?!

Up until then Kaarle wanted to go to the Olympics – but as a runner! One summer afternoon in 2005 Kaarle finally got on a track bike and fell in love with it immediately – she had found her niche. Within 8 months, Kaarle was representing Australia and winning medals at the Junior World Championships and was a senior World Champion by the age of 21.

Fast forward to now, Kaarle is a four time World Champion, four time Commonwealth Games Champion, 15 time Australian Champion, Olympic Bronze medalist… and the list goes on! Her results on the boards of the track have paved the way for who she is today.

A big believer in always striving to understand oneself, Kaarle pushes all boundaries of her life by studying a degree at University, becoming a part of Athlete Advisory groups advocating for rights of athletes in all sports, supporting her charity of choice – the “Below the Belt Pedalthon”, all while pursuing the things in her life that “feed her soul”

A lover of reading, animals and family, on the weekends after hard weeks of training Kaarle can be found on her family’s hobby farm in Sydney’s west helping her mum work horses, helping her sister study for the upcoming HSC, or going for walks with Fred, the family's great dane, around the farm.

Kaarle considers herself an ordinary person who has found something she loves and has the ability to travel the world doing what she loves.