Rider type Sprinter Name Callum Skinner | Disciplines Track cycling | |
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Full name Callum Crichton Skinner Born 20 August 1992 (age 31)
Scotland ( 1992-08-20 ) Profiles | ||
Callum Skinner talks Olympic ambitions ahead of European track cycling championships
Callum Skinner (born 20 August 1992) is a British track cyclist. He won the silver medal in the individual sprint at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and was a member of the British team that won gold in the team sprint.
Contents
- Callum Skinner talks Olympic ambitions ahead of European track cycling championships
- Callum skinner world championships 2016 sprint highlights
- Early life
- Career
- References
Callum skinner world championships 2016 sprint highlights
Early life
Skinner was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He moved to Bruntsfield, Edinburgh at the age of 12 and attended James Gillespie's High School. He took up cycling in 2004, inspired by Chris Hoy's success in the sport at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
In 2008 he was national youth champion and broke Hoy's British 200 m record for his age group. Later that year he was the inaugural winner of the Chris Hoy Trophy, an award presented to Edinburgh's most promising young track cyclist, and received the award from Hoy himself.
Career
Skinner competed representing Scotland in the team sprint at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth. He did not get the opportunity to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London due to a lump in his neck in late 2011 which doctors initially thought was lymphoma. Biopsies later proved that the lump was not cancerous but the scare had caused him to take time away from the sport.
In 2014 he once again represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. He came to prominence at the 2014 British National Track Championships, winning a clean sweep of four national sprint titles. In October 2014, he became European champion in the 1 km time trial.
In January 2016 Skinner was a member of the team that won the overall title for the men's team sprint at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong. In March he finished eighth in the individual sprint in the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics he was part of the team that won gold in the men's team sprint along with Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny, setting an Olympic record of 42.440 in the final against New Zealand. He won the silver medal in the men's individual sprint, beating Matthew Glaetzer 2–0 in the semi-final but he was beaten 2–0 by defending champion Kenny in an all-British final.