Biography

Born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, Cundy started swimming at the age of 10, making his international debut at the swimming world championships in Malta in 1994.

Cundy would go on to swim for Great Britain at three Paralympic Games, winning three gold and two bronze medals. A year after the Athens Games, he rode on the track for the first time, at Newport Velodrome, and his potential quickly brought him to the attention of the Great Britain Cycling Team.

While still swimming on the Great Britain team, he was selected for the Paralympic World Cup team and rode the team sprint setting a new world record, alongside Darren Kenny and Mark Bristow.

That performance was enough to convince Cundy to concentrate fully on cycling and a gold medal, and world record, in the kilo at his debut UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Aigle, Switzerland in the summer of 2006 vindicated his decision.

That was the start of a decade and half of success on the track with a double gold medal performance following at the 2007 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Bordeaux, France, where Cundy won the kilo and team sprint, the events that he targeted at the Beijing Paralympic Games the following year.

In China, Cundy would join the elite band of British Paralympic athletes who have been medallists in two different sports when he broke the world record on the way to winning the kilo in a time of 1:05.466. He then claimed his second gold medal of the Games, alongside Kenny and Bristow, in the team sprint final defeating China by over a second

His achievements were also recognised when he was appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours list, an award that was followed by being made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) eight years later, for his services to the two sports.

On the track, the double of kilo and team sprint was becoming Cundy’s stock-in trade and he repeated the feat at the 2009 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Manchester, and in Montichiari, Italy, two years later. At the latter, Cundy added a silver in the individual pursuit as he prepared for London 2012.

London heartbreak and Rio redemption

The Olympic year started promisingly, at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles in February when he collected a full set of medals - gold in the kilo, silver with Kenny and Sarah Storey in the mixed team sprint and a bronze in the individual pursuit.

But the London Paralympics did not go according to plan. Favourite for gold in the kilo, a slip out of the start gate, apparently due to a mechanical fault, denied Cundy the opportunity to defend his Olympic title with officials refusing his appeal for a restart.

Cundy had the consolation of winning bronze in the four-kilometre individual pursuit in which he covered the opening kilometre of his heat in 1:05.317, a time that would have won him gold in the kilo.

The rider also used the platform of the London Paralympics to declare that he would be continuing his illustrious career.

Cundy’s efforts saw him recognised by Anglia Ruskin University who awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in a ceremony at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in autumn 2012.

And since London 2012, Cundy has continued to be unbeatable in the kilo, clinching gold in seven successive UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships – from Aguascalientes, Mexico, 2014 to Milton, Canada, in 2020.

Cundy, who lists his hobbies as including cinema, music, Moto GP and power-kiting, also made a winning return to the team sprint discipline in Montichiari in 2016, joining Jon Allan Butterworth and Louis Rolfe in winning gold against China in a new world record time of 49.268.

Later that year, Cundy made up for the disappointment in missing gold at London four years earlier as he won two Paralympic titles in Rio.

In the kilo time trial, Cundy beat a strong field, including team-mate Butterworth, to take gold in a new Paralympic record of 1:04.492. That winning performance from Cundy was repeated in the team sprint where he teamed with Rolfe and Butterworth to win the gold in a world record time of 48.635.

Cundy's form continued into 2017 with yet another world title - his 13th - as his unbeaten streak in the kilo continued at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles.

He extended his run 12 months later with yet another time trial gold at the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio de Janeiro before winning his 15th world title in the team sprint alongside Rolfe and Butterworth once more.

While he had to settle for team sprint silver in 2019 and 2020, Cundy stretched his imperious kilo record, winning gold again in Apeldoorn and Milton respectively, to preserve one of sport's longest unbeaten records.

In all, between 2006 and 2020, the experienced sprinter has won no fewer than 12 kilo time trial golds at UCI Para-cycling World Track Championships.

Not surprisingly, the world kilo record he set in Aguascalientes in 2014, of 1:01.466, still stands. The British star also still holds the C4 world record for the flying 200m time trial, the 10.485 seconds he rode in the 2019 sprint competition at the UK National Track Championships in Manchester.