Kiwi cycling star Sam Webster reveals ‘hardest part’ of retiring

04 August 2021, Japan, Izu: Cycling: Olympics, track cycling, sprint individual, men, qualification, at the Izu Velodrome. Sam Webster from New Zealand. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa (Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images)

New Zealand’s most successful track cyclist Sam Webster has revealed the hardest part of walking away from his illustrious career.

The 31-year-old retired this week after winning 18 medals at junior and senior events and was part of the three-time world champion men’s sprint team along with Eddie Dawkins and Ethan Mitchell.

Individually Webster claimed four Commonwealth Games medals including the individual sprint crown at the 2014 and 2018 Games. Most recently he picked up a bronze medal in the team sprint at Birmingham 2022 alongside Bradley Knipe and Sam Dakin.

After the season ended this year, Webster decided to give himself time to see if he could get to a competitive level for the Paris Olympics.

“A lot of people have said ‘that sounds so far away - that’s not until July of 2024′, but the reality is that the qualifying window starts in February next year,” Webster said.

“When I started to consider the demand that was needed to get to a competitive level, but also the necessity to be competitive at the intermediary events along the way, it became something that I was seeing not as clear a path as I have seen other times in my career.

“Ultimately it came down to a feeling that I felt I couldn’t be as competitive as I wanted to be and it was time for me to move on to new challenges. I had fulfilled my potential.”

Webster said the hardest part of retiring was leaving the velodrome, a space that has housed so many ups and downs across his career.

“When I left the track, that final time of it officially being the place of work, it’s a place that I’ve enjoyed every minute that I’ve spent there.

“I’ve had my head in the rubbish bin after these terribly hard training sessions, I’ve had successes, I’ve had hard days, boring meetings and seminars that I’ve sat through.

“But for a place that’s been very special to me for the past nine years, walking out for the last time in the Cycling NZ polo, I was quite surprised by the emotion I was struck with at that point.”

Webster said he’d love to stay involved with cycling, even in a mentoring capacity for younger riders.

“I feel very much duty bound because I was so privileged to have so many opportunities and so much knowledge handed down to me by the older riders when I first started.

“I’ve been able to walk away from competitive cycling still with my relationship with the sport at a really high level. I’m still hugely passionate about it.”