18/08/2026
Even world champions have doubts.
In the latest episode of our Love the Fan, Win the Game podcast, host Brigette McGuire is joined by 2024 Olympic and World Champion Grace Brown OAM, who recounts an emotional phone call home when she told her parents she didn't think she was meant to be a professional cyclist.
"That was a really tough year because the level between Australia and Europe, you go from racing maybe a bunch of 50 women in Australia to suddenly being in a peloton of 120–150," Grace says.
"The European riders are really used to being shoulder to shoulder, bumping each other, racing for corners … it's quite full-on. I struggled through those few months racing in Europe.
"I remember distinctively a phone call home to my parents saying, 'I don't think this is for me. I don't think that I'm cut out to be a professional cyclist, it's all too hard' … but when I came back, I realised how much I'd grown from that experience."
Grace and Brigette cover a wide range of topics across sport and business, including Grace's rise from a competitive and active younger sister to world champion cyclist and successful businesswoman.
🎧 Listen via link in bio!