The ‘cricketer’s’ injury that kept this cyclist out for a year and how she fought back

Source : ABC NEWS

There is nothing more frustrating for an athlete than an injury lay-off.

It’s even worse when that injury is not something that can be easily fixed, nor when the only prescription is to rest up and take it easy.

Rest is not something active people do well.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that when Kristina Clonan went down with a problematic back injury, it led to an incredibly difficult year.

In fact, things got so bad that she felt like the 2022 Commonwealth Games 500m time trial champion wouldn’t ever get back to her best — and might even have to give up riding at a high level altogether.

“I mean … I had an absolute shit year,” Clonan told ABC Sport of her 2025.

“It was terrible for me. I questioned a lot of things, one of them being if I would be back riding again.

“I really kind of hit a bit of a bottom.”

The nature of Clonan’s injury made things extra hard — hers was an injury far from typical for a cyclist.

In fact, hers was an issue that is far more common in cricket as a bane of fast bowlers — a legacy and illustration of just how much force elite track sprinters force through the pedals and push in the gym to get to and stay at the top.

“I pretty much had fluid in the bone,” Clonan explained, trackside at the Anna Meares Velodrome during the National Championships.

“It is very frustrating because you can’t have a cortisone or steroid to help.

“Really, time just fixed it, which, being an athlete going against the clock, patience is something that I don’t really have much of.”

Clonan’s injury torment lasted nine months, wrecking her season completely as she missed the Santiago world championships.

However, the time spent away from the track allowed the 27-year-old time to gain some perspective.

And although Clonan said patience was not one of her best virtues heading into 2025, adaptability and inner strength are clearly among the affable and engaging Queenslander’s best qualities.

Clonan started her career in the endurance program and enjoyed considerable success, being crowned Oceania road champion in 2015, before winning the prestigious Austral Wheel Race and racing in the women’s scratch race at the 2017 world championships.

However, missing out on selection for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Tokyo Olympics prompted the Maryborough racer to switch to the shorter events.

It paid off almost immediately as Clonan beat out Canadian Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell with a blistering ride in the women’s 500m time trial at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games to win a brilliant gold medal.

Her time of 33.234 was a new Commonwealth Games record, bettering the one held by fellow Queenslander Anna Meares.

She backed that up the following year with a silver at the world championships in Glasgow and then, as a member of the team sprint squad, claimed bronze with Molly McGill and Alessia McCaig at the Ballerup World Championships in 2024.

It is in the team sprint that Clonan has really found her groove, as part of an Australian squad that is challenging at the very top of the sport.

But during those long days of painful recuperation in 2025, her thoughts were, soberingly, not about getting back on the bike at all.

“I guess at the start it was just to be healthy again and not be in pain every day,” Clonan said.

“I really just wanted to get back to general health.

“If that meant that I could be riding at a really competitive level, then I’d definitely take the opportunity to.

“I found a really nice sweet spot with team sprint, I think it’s the type of rider that I am and something that I really want to do for the future.

“I think going into Paris, too, I was the only girl [in the sprint program]. So being in the team environment and having friends definitely made a big difference.

“That’s what drew me back into it, that maybe with my skill set I can help other people also get an Olympic dream.”

Helping others has become something of a personal crusade for Clonan.

During her injury lay-off, she helped set up a scholarship with health and fitness company Alpha Vital to offer financial support to up-and-coming athletes who may need it, hoping to arrest a slide in funding opportunities for younger athletes.

“Coming up through the system, I had a fantastic group at QAS [Queensland Academy of Sport],” Clonan said.

“QAS is still really strong, but we are seeing that different institutes are struggling.

“A lot of the girls and guys from New South Wales have gone either to WA or SASI [South Australia Sports Institute], so the sport is struggling.

“The experience that I had coming through Queensland was not just great to become a good cyclist; there was a lot of character building, and there are a lot of things that I’ve learnt as a person.

“I think that if I can help someone achieve or experience what I experienced despite not having the same amount of funding or support, then I’m fully on board with that.

“The retention of women in sport is so important for me.

“Like I said, the experience that I got through sport is something that I’ll just cherish forever. It’s character building through the highs and the lows.

“I’m so grateful for Alpha Vital, they’re funding the scholarship, and I really hope that we can do it year after year because I love it.”

The scholarship was awarded to 18-year-old road racer Amelie Sanders, who consistently contested for race wins during this year’s ProVelo Super League with her Meridian Bikebug team.

Sanders proved her domestic pedigree by winning the junior time trial and criterium championships in 2025, finishing second in the road race, and is heading to Europe next month.

“She is just an absolute weapon,” Clonan said.

“I’m so excited to see how she progresses.”

Prioritising the elevation of other athletes during her injury lay-off speaks volumes about Clonan’s character.

But her willingness to learn and gain inspiration from athletes outside of cycling also says a lot about how she sees herself — finding parallels to her progress in the most unlikely of places.

“Post-Paris [Olympics], I went over and hung out with [bobsleigh athletes] Bree [Walker] and Kiara [Reddingius],” Clonan said.

“They had pretty much six months for their season, so I went over there, helped them out, and saw what bobsleigh was like.

“It really opened my eyes to how we’re going to run the next [Olympic] cycle.

“I learnt so much from them. Their sport is very different to ours, and I think that the way that they run it, the way that they handle themselves, the way that they have so much accountability and autonomy and the leadership from Bree is just, I’ve learned so much from them, and I’m so grateful to have them in my corner

“They’re friendships that I’ll cherish forever.”

Clonan said she kept up with Walker and Reddingius’s efforts in Cortina “religiously”, even with the unfavourable time zone.

“I think one of the rounds was at 3am,” Clonan said.

“So I set my alarm, woke up. I was rooting for them the whole time.

“I think Bree probably will go again — she’s got that absolute dog in her, so I would be so keen to see how she goes.

“And maybe one day I’ll help out with Bobsleigh,” Clonan added with a broad grin. “We’ll see.”

It’s not such a far-fetched thought as you might think.

Kelsey Mitchell, who Clonan beat to gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, made the switch to bobsleigh for the Milano-Cortina Games, acting as brake-woman to Melissa Lotholz in the two-woman competition and finishing 13th, just behind Walker and Reddingius’s best-ever finish for an Australian bobsled crew in 10th.

Mitchell made the move after finishing eighth in the Paris Games, taking Clonan’s sabbatical to the Nth degree.

She is just the 14th Canadian to compete at both Summer and Winter Olympics — and told Canadian broadcaster CTV News that she wants to switch back to cycling for the 2028 LA Games.

“Our sports are very similar, so I think that’s kind of what drew us together,” Clonan said.

“We are very big, powerful athletes, we lift a lot in the gym … There’s a lot of crossover.

“But yeah, they’re fantastic. Everything that they do is fantastic, but so far beyond what I could ever experience in that adrenaline space.”

Possible bobsleigh aspirations aside, Clonan is fully focused on the bike.

Victory with McCaig and Molly McGill at the Oceania track championships in Cambridge, New Zealand gave her a winning return to international competition, allowing her to use the National Championships as a chance to experiment and rediscover her obvious speed — she and her Queensland team came second in the team sprint earlier in the week, while a late dash in the individual keirin on Saturday night was not enough for her to win a medal, finishing in fourth place.

“I’m stoked to be back here now, riding with the team, team sprint especially,” Clonan said.

“We’ve modified my training, and I guess if I’ve learned anything, there are a lot of ways to skin a cat.

‘[This week] We tried different positions [in the team sprint], which is very atypical.

“It was actually my first time riding P3 — I’ve been riding since I was 14, and today was the first day of riding P3 — so fun to try something different, test the waters, see how the team’s going, have a bit of fun.

“We have a lot of girls who can ride in a lot of different positions. Being versatile and keeping us on our toes is fantastic for team building.

“It means that we’ll have a faster team if we can just have more people riding more positions well.

“So yeah, doing that, riding well, and yeah, just having fun with it.”

The first target will be the Commonwealth Games, hoping to return to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, where she claimed her first world championship medal — although Australia will have to get past an enormously talented English team to do so.

England provided the bulk of the squads that won the gold medal in Paris and a silver medal at the 2025 World Championships, although of their world championship team, three-time Olympic medallist and British star Emma Finucane rides for Wales, and Iona Moir for Scotland, thereby distributing the home nations’ strength somewhat.

“I’m really excited for Comm Games,” Clonan said.

“We’re going back to Glasgow — I would have loved it to be in Melbourne, but we take what we can get.

“I’m training like an absolute greyhound, so I’m hoping to really perform there for myself and the team. We’ll see how we go.”