Steven Burke

The son of a mother who had also represented her country at the sport, Steven Burke had won national and international honours as a junior but was taken to the 2004 Olympic Games only as a reserve for the team pursuit. Due to a series of circumstances he was, at two days notice, told he would take part in the individual pursuit in Beijing and responded by lowering his personal best for the 4,000 in all rounds that he contested. In all he took twelve seconds off his previous best and was rewarded with a shocking bronze medal. Burke has been a regular member of the pursuit team since Beijing and has won silver and bronze medals respectively at the 2010 and 2011 World Championships. He has also won national championships at both the pursuit and the kilometre time trial and won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 2011 European Championships.