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After an incredible year across multiple disciplines, the Cycling Ireland High Performance Programme won the High Performance Programme of the Year at the 2025 Olympic Sports Awards.
Taking place at the Royal Convention Centre, Dublin on Saturday, 6th of December the awards celebrated the best of Irish sport.
2025 was a year that saw Irish cyclists take five World Championship medals and five European Championship medals. These medals came in mountain bike, road and track events, and included a third straight double World Championship for tandem duo Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly.
Road World Championships, Road Race - Ben Healy, Bronze
Track World Championships, Elimination - Lara Gillespie, Gold
Track European Championships, Elimination - Lara Gillespie, Gold
Para Road World Championships, Road Race - Kelly & Dunlevy, Gold
Para Road World Championships, Time Trial - Kelly & Dunlevy, Gold
MTB World Championships, Downhill - Ronan Dunne, Bronze
European Road Championships, Time Trial - Conor Murphy, Silver
European Road Championships, Time Trial - Adam Rafferty, Bronze
European Road Championships, Road Race - David Gaffney, Bronze
European Track Championships, Scratch - Max Fitzgerald, Silver
High Performance Head Coach Neill Delahaye was on hand to accept the award, and said afterwards “2025 has been an outstanding year across multiple disciplines. Much of the groundwork for what came to fruition this year has been built over many years of refinement of our HP systems and introducing structured pathways for development athletes that give them the best chance of succeeding as Elites. We firmly believe we have some of the best cyclists in the World in our programmes and some of the best staff in the World in our HPU planning, delivering & administrating our activities. As a Federation and a HPU we are building capacity to develop and support World Class performance with World Class coaching, expertise and experience. We are confident in our ability, with the backing of the cycling community and support of our key partners Sport Ireland, Paralympics Ireland & Sport Northern Ireland, to work closely with our athletes to deliver podium success on the World stage. While 2025 has been hugely satisfying, we intend that this is a platform on which to build more robust systems that will continue to deliver consistent success at the highest level for many years to come.”
Cycling Ireland CEO James Quilligan heralded the win, saying “The HPU remains the flagship for Cycling Ireland on the international stage. It’s fantastic to see the work our athletes, staff and volunteers have put in for the last number of years having tangible results, and this award is testament to that ongoing work.”
April of this year saw the release of the Cycling Ireland High Performance Strategy, highlighting the aims and objectives of the programme from 2025 to 2028. Chief among the early plans laid out around this strategy was a focus on sending athletes to events that play into their strengths and where medals were a real possibility. While the programme has seen tangible success in 2025, this is truly only the beginning.
Two Irish cyclists were also up for awards on the night.
Ben Healy received nominations for two awards. His exploits at the Tour de France and his World Championship medal saw him receive a nomination for Male Athlete of the Yea, while his Stage Win and stint in the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France was nominated for Olympic Sporting Moment of the Year. The award was ultimately won by Kate O’Connor.
Healy was up against middle-distance runner Cian McPhillips, rower Fintan McCarthy and golfer Rory McIlroy for Athlete of the Year. He came up against McIlroy again in the nominations for Sporting Moment of the Year, as well as heptathlete Kate O’Connor.
Lara Gillespie’s European Championship and World Championship success, along with a strong performance in her debut Tour de France Femmes saw her nominated for Female Athlete of the Year.
Gillespie faced tough competition in the Female Athlete of the Year category, coming up against boxer Aoife O’Rourke, heptathlete Kate O’Connor and Rower Fiona Murtagh, with O’Connor again taking the win.