St George cycling legend Gary Sutton has been named the new head endurance track coach of USA Cycling.
USA Cycling announced on Monday that Sutton would join their elite athletics department to focus on identifying and developing a pool of world class endurance track athletes.
USA Cycling CEO Derek Bouchard Hall said they hoped Sutton would take their program to the next level.
“Endurance track is an area of strength for the U.S. We are the reigning world champions in the women’s team pursuit and earned two silver medals in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games,” he said.
“However, we have greater ambitions for the future and want to keep improving. Gary is one of the most experienced and skilled track coaches in the world and we are very fortunate to have been successful in recruiting him to join our team.”
Sutton said it was an exciting time to be joining USA Cycling.
“I have been competing against the U.S. women’s endurance track program for years and I have been very impressed with their steady progress and deep talent pool,” he said.
“I’m also impressed with their level of ambition and the steps (USA Cycling vice-president of high performance) Jim Miller is taking to develop a high performance program with world class coaches.”
Sutton, Cycling Australia’s coach of the year for 2015-16, did not have his contract renewed when it expired at the end of June after CA took a different direction under new high performance unit director Simon Jones.
Sutton had been coach of the elite women’s endurance squad since 2009, leading his program to a wealth of international success including seven world championships and three Commonwealth Games crowns in a total haul of 70 medals on the world stage.
Sutton, a shire local and multiple winner of the Leader Sports Star of the Year award, became a legend at St George Cycling Club. He went on to become one of Australia’s most decorated cyclists setting national records from one-kilometre events to 180km.
He won 45 national titles and represented Australia at two Olympic Games. Sutton also won a Commonwealth Games gold medal and took victory in the 1980 World Points race.
Sutton then went into coaching. An 11-year stint as national junior coach was followed by his appointment as the national women’s endurance coach where he became one of the most successful coaches in world cycling. He has coached 91 junior, senior, world and Olympic champions to the podium.
He guided Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Josie Tomic, Sarah Kent and Melissa Hoskins’ world teams pursuit championships as well as Tomic and Edmonson’s world omniums, Cure’s world points race and Rebecca Wiasak’s two world individual pursuit championships.
He has also overseen the career of shire product Ankudinoff, who is now rated number one in the world.
After a disappointing Olympic campaign, Sutton's women’s endurance squad won a silver medal in the teams pursuit at the world championships in Hong Kong in April.
