Kristina Clonan did her best superhero impression at the announcement of Australia’s cycling team for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games.
Flying into the Anna Meares Velodrome for pictures and interviews, the Olympian from the Sunshine Coast just as quickly flew out, switched polo shirts and transformed into your everyday Brisbane property manager.
It was a profession the 28-year-old pursued last year when she feared her cycling days were over.
Battling severe back pain due to fluid trapped in her lower spine, Clonan spent most of 2025 writhing in agony unable to complete basic tasks, let alone hit top speed in the velodrome.
But next month the Paris Olympian and 2022 Commonwealth Games champion will fly to Glasgow as part of a team sprint outfit with golden ambitions.
“We can be great: we really can,” she said.
“Having medals around our neck is what we want to do.”
There was no women’s team sprint for four years before Clonan was part of the side that won bronze in their return at the 2024 world championships.
Clonan’s stress fractures kept her out of the picture after that, pondering her future.
“I couldn’t even do the basic things: tying shoelaces, rolling over (while sleeping), let alone perform at a high level,” she said.
“And it got quite grim … by October (2025) I was done. I was so sick of the relentlessness of the injury.
“It’s a 24-hour thing when you’re constantly in pain.
“It was so terrible for so long, then suddenly it got better.”
Clonan is a former Matthew Flinders Anglican College student who forged her skills on the bike with the Sunshine Coast Cycling Club.
She broke Anna Meares’ 500m time trial Commonwealth Games record in Birmingham four years ago, beating Canada’s Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell to win a surprise gold.
Meares remains the only Australian woman to win Olympic gold on the track, doing so in 2004 and again in 2012.
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Clonan, who studied property development and real estate management at university, will return to full-time riding soon and attempt to join her in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I’m back,” she grinned.
“Standing here, saying I’m pain free, I didn’t think I would be saying that, ever.
“The first Comm Games I went to … I had a little bit of entitlement.
“Now, there’s so much pride in being on the team and having a team sprint.
“I did feel like my timing hasn’t quite been right, but this is the Comm Games where it’s come together.
“Now I’m here, I’m so hungry to get a gold medal and drive this team forward to LA.”
The Commonwealth Games will run in Glasgow from July 23 to August 2.
