Four-time cycling world champion Kaarle McCulloch will soon be speeding on Tokyo’s slick tracks at the Olympics, but the road to get there hasn’t been without its bumps.

Although she’ll be lugging her bike on to a Japan-bound flight next month, McCulloch initially resented the idea of racing on wheels. After her stepfather Ken Bates took a 12-year-old McCulloch to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, she was adamant she was going to be “just like Cathy Freeman”.

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