Shelley Olds

  
  


Shelley Olds Worlds headshot 2014

Date of Birth: September 30, 1980
Height: 5'2"/1.6m
Weight: 120 lbs./54 kg./8.8 st.
Place of Birth: Groton, Massachusetts
Hometown: Groton, Massachusetts
Residence: Gilroy, California/Girona, Spain
Teams: AA Drink-Leontien Cycling Team (2012), Diadora - Pasta Zara (2011), Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty12 (2010), ProMan Hit Squad (2008-09), Ale Cipollini
Education: Roanoke College, B.S. Health & Human Performance
Website: www.shelleyoldsusa.com

Olympic Experience/UCI World Championships Results

National Championships

  • Two-time USA Cycling Elite Criterium national champion, 2010 and 2011
  • Two-time USA Cycling Elite Track scratch race national champion, 2008 and 2009

Career Highlights

  • 1st place - 2012 Giro d'Italia Femminile Internazionale - Stage 6
  • 1st place - 2012 UCI World Cup #4 Tour of Chongming Island, China
  • 1st place - 2011 G.P. Costa Etrusca, Italy
  • 1st place - 2010 Pan American Championships, Aguascalientes, Mexico - Road race, Elite Women
  • 1st place - 2010 Giro d'Italia Femminile Internazionale - Stage 10
  • 1st Overall - 2010 Nature Valley Grand Prix - 2nd in criterium
  • 1st place - 2010 Tour of New Zealand - Overall, Won Stages 1, 2, 5, 6
  • 1st place - 2010 Tour of the Gila, Silver City, New Mexico - Stage 4
  • 1st place - 2009 Tulsa Tough, Tulsa, Oklahoma - Omnium, Stages 2 and 3
  • 2nd place - 2010 TD Bank Liberty Classic, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 2nd place - 2009  Track World Cup, Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia - Points Race
  • 2nd place - 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, Minnesota - Overall
  • 2nd place - 2009 Giro d'Italia Femminile Internazionale - Stage 8
Shelley Olds (r) and Alison Powers begin the road race at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships
Shelley Olds (r) and Alison Powers begin the road race at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships. (photo by Casey B. Gibson)

Points of Interest

  • Shelley was captain of the women's soccer team at Roanoke College for two consecutive years.
  • She was introduced to cycling by riding on the back of a tandem mountain bike in 2005.
  • Shelley's track bike was stolen shortly before the 2008 national championships but then later returned to a neighbor's house a few doors down. According to Shelley, the thief must have decided that her 47cm frame with no brakes, carbon wheels with tubulars, and a 92-inch gear was not ideal for commuting.

Personal

Shelley Olds' first challenge in sport was choosing one. A talented runner and soccer player, Shelley left those behind when she fell in love with track racing, a dynamic cycling discipline that offered a variety of Olympic events. She trained resolutely; she pushed herself and excelled at track racing, eventually settling on the points race as her Olympic medal target. Then in a bait-and-switch maneuver by the International Olympic Committee, the points race was removed from the Games and just like that, her motive for medaling vanished. But her goal was to compete in the Olympics, now all she needed was a new sport to excel.
 
Starting in 2010, Shelley transitioned laterally from a white-hot track racer to  one of the world's top sprinters on the road, but she had more to prove. In practically no time, she claimed a respectable handful of podium finishes in prestigious stage races, as well as maintained status as a sprinter by clinching crit wins, including multiple national titles.
 
Her relatively brief career as a pro cyclist (2007- present) suggests an athlete with a mind trained on success and a body that obeys what the mind wants.