Damian McDonald (12 May 1972 – 23 March 2007) was an Australian

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

, who was born in

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder. McDonald died on 23 March 2007. He was one of three men killed in a collision and explosion in the

Burnley Tunnel The Burnley Tunnel is a tollway tunnel in Melbourne, in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, which carries traffic eastbound from the West Gate Freeway to the Monash Freeway. It is part of the CityLink Tollway operated by Transurban. Runni ...

Melbourne, Victoria Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the St ...

Career

In 1990, McDonald won the Australian national road race title, beating

Eddy Salas Edward Salas (born 24 August 1965) is a former Australian racing cyclist. He won the Australian national road race title in 1993 and competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, finishing sixth in the men's individual road race. Major results ;1987 ...

, who is also a successful road bicycle racer. In 1992 he was a reserve for four-man pursuit team at the

Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, barely missing out on a medal when the team won silver, losing to Germany. In the same year McDonald was also inducted as a life member of the Blackburn Cycling Club. He won a gold medal at the

1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, from 18 to 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, ...

1994 Australian Medallists
,

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

. as part of the road time trial team with Henk Vogels, Phil Anderson and

Brett Dennis Brett derives from a Middle English surname meaning "Briton" or "Breton", referring to the Celtic people of Britain and Brittany, France. Brette can be a feminine name. People with the surname * Adrian Brett (born 1945) English flutist and writer ...

. He also won gold at the inaugural

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Tour de Langkawi The Tour de Langkawi is a multiple stage bicycle race held in Malaysia. It is named after the archipelago Langkawi, where the first edition started and finished. The race has been held annually since 1996, primarily in February. It usually con ...

in 1996, and also represented Australia at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Family

He was married to Bree McDonald, the manager of the

Melbourne Vixens Melbourne Vixens is an Australian netball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Victoria in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. The team was formed in 2007 ...

netball side. They have a son.

References

External links

Blackburn Cycling Club
1972 births 2007 deaths Australian male cyclists Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Australian people of Irish descent Olympic cyclists of Australia Cyclists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Road incident deaths in Victoria (Australia) Cyclists from Victoria (Australia) Australian Institute of Sport cyclists Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling {{australia-cycling-bio-stub