26 cycling high performance P high performance (para) 0 Total investment 2015–16 (Cycling Australia): $8,823,667 (high performance: $6,793,925; high performance — para $1,107,394; participation $450,000; other $472,348) ASC funding as a percentage of total income: 43% A strong performance at the April World Championships in both 2015 and 2016 in the Olympic disciplines, with a sub-optimal performance at Rio, highlights a need to look at the competition peaking strategy. Cycling Australia has identified a number of areas to be addressed, and appointed a new high performance director to help turn the strong performances throughout the cycle into an outcome at the Olympic/Paralympic Games. The Paralympic program continued to present strong results and performed well over the year. The program continued to operate effectively with well-planned, organised leadership and strong team morale and culture. Cycling Australia had limited opportunity to invest additional funds into the high performance program resulting in some identified resource gaps needed to achieve results. The ASC/AIS and Cycling are collaborating closely to address this issue. After strong results in preceding world championships, the Rio results at the Olympic Games across track, road, BMX and mountain bike were disappointing. Some unfortunate crashes and technical failures at the Games, and poorly timed sickness just prior to Rio, contributed to the overall Olympic results. Rio highlights include the silver medal in the Men’s Team Pursuit and Anna Meares competing in her fourth and final Olympic appearance in Rio, as she finished her storied Olympic career with a sixth medal (bronze) in Olympic competition while also becoming the first Australian athlete to win a medal at four Olympic Games. In BMX, strong performances in the preliminary rounds did not translate into the final. Some technical errors overshadowed the early speed shown in the preliminaries. There were hopes of top 10 finishes in the mountain bike race but mechanical issues and pre-existing illness affected these opportunities. In contrast, the Paralympic program was slightly below its gold medal targets and slightly above the overall medal targets. As with the Olympic program, there were some near misses and some room for improvement. Governance commentary Cycling Australia is progressing well with its governance reform and has been working to make changes that will achieve greater compliance with the Mandatory Sports Governance Principles. It has continued to work with stakeholders in the planning and review process for strategic direction. Cycling needs to continue working towards adopting unified behaviours. Cycling Australia would benefit from conducting an external board evaluation to complement the internal self-assessment process conducted by the board. 2016 benchmark event // Olympic Games medal target 5–7 actual gold 0 silver 1 bronze 1 total 2 2016 Paralympic benchmark event // Paralympic Games medal target 9–11 actual gold 3 silver 7 bronze 3 total 13