Wisbech’s Cundy won two golds and a silver at the 2025 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio after returning from injury.
After his exceptional performances this year, Cundy reflected on his unexpected World Championship success.
Para-cycling legend Jody Cundy was left ‘gobsmacked’ after he won the Paralympic Athlete of the Year award at the 2025 British Cycling Awards, presented by Lloyds. (Image: SWP-3129)
“I’m kind of gobsmacked actually,” he said.
“It’s nice to walk away with recognition of being the Paralympic Athlete of the Year, and it’s pretty unexpected, but it’s been a pretty successful year from my point of view.
“It’s been a very mixed year. I started off the year not really knowing what I was doing. The motivation was pretty low, and I was just targeting to try and compete at the World Championships at the end of the year.
“Then the last month or so, everything that we’d been doing in training, in the gym, on the track, and all the stuff behind the scenes, started to come together.
“To do the time I did, which was the fastest time I’ve ridden, in Rio is pretty special. And then to also take the inaugural sprint competition as well, to take two world titles, at the start of the year I didn’t expect any of that.“
Cundy’s medal haul from Rio included an unprecedented 16th C4 1km time trial world championship title in a row.
He finished 1.7 seconds ahead of fellow Brit Archie Atkinson, having first competed in the World Championships in 2006, just two years after Atkinson’s birth.
Cundy said: “I think [the highlight of my year] has to be winning the Kilo. I mean, 16 times on the trot is pretty special.
“There was loads of pressure [heading into worlds] in the sense that it was a marker to see whether I could still do it and also whether I still deserved a place on the team.”
With the Paralympics in Los Angeles on the horizon, Cundy’s success has now buoyed the 47-year-old on to aim for further success at the 2028 Games.
“[The results in Rio] give me hope now to be able to put in the hard work again for the next couple of years and see where we go with LA being the big picture at the end of it,” he said.
“This year was putting a nice little marker out there to say ‘I can still do it’. I’m still at the top end. It’s now whether I can do it for the next three years.”
Could you develop your skills, meet new people and bring huge impact to your local community through volunteering? Get involved with British Cycling volunteering opportunities at https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/volunteering