Michelle Ferris (24 September 1976) is an Australian cyclist. She won the Silver Medal in Women's sprint in

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, ...

and the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. Her biggest rival was Félicia Ballanger, who beat her in the World Championships as well as in the Olympics. In the World Cup in 1997, she did beat her, making her one of only a few cyclists who were able to beat Ballanger in a big tournament. In summer 2020, Ferris took on a role as Assistant Mentor Coach to the cycling squad at the Western Sydney Academy of Sport. She is one of the few professional Australian athletes to

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

publicly as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, noting "Whenever I was interviewed after a race during my career, the journalists always asked me about my performance, no one ever asked if I was gay. If that question had been asked, I would have answered it honestly. I've never been afraid of who I am. But when you're talking about your race results, you're not going to add on at the end, 'By the way, I'm gay'." She has served as an ambassador for the

Gay Games The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was starte ...

and stated she "can't say why so many lesbian athletes stay silent. But she says that while it was no secret she was gay when she won her silver medals at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, she never spoke about it publicly at the time."

Palmarès

Olympic Games

* 1996, 2000 2nd 500m

World Championship

* 1997, 1998, 1999 2nd sprint * 1995, 1996, 1997 2nd 500m

Honours

* Added to the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame in 2018

References

1976 births Living people Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists for Australia Olympic silver medalists for Australia Australian female cyclists Olympic medalists in cycling Lesbian sportswomen Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Australian LGBT sportspeople Australian lesbians Cyclists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games LGBT cyclists Medallists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Warrnambool Sportswomen from Victoria (state) {{Australia-cycling-bio-stub