26 Facts About Shane Perkins

Shane Perkins is an Australian and Russian professional track cyclist.

Shane Perkins played basketball at a very high level aged 7 to 14, but did not enjoy it enough to continue.

Shane Perkins rode BMX for a short while and began cycling aged 13 in 1999 with his father, who had himself been a successful cyclist.

Shane Perkins's first cycling club was the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club, and his first medal was won at the Victoria state championships at Northcote, it was a gold medal in the sprint event, where he beat friend and rival Michael Ford.

Shane Perkins went on to win 11 further National Championship titles between then and 2006, and broke another two Australian records.

Shane Perkins is an Australian Institute of Sport and Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

In Los Angeles in 2004, Shane Perkins became the sprint and keirin junior World Champion.

Shane Perkins tested positive for methamphetamine following the Keirin final on 29 July, his case was heard in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in November 2004.

The Court took into account extenuating circumstances, accepting that Shane Perkins had used a stimulant inadvertently.

Shane Perkins was reselected to represent Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in his hometown, Melbourne.

Shane Perkins won a bronze medal as part of Australia's team sprint squad, becoming the youngest ever Australian cyclist to win a Commonwealth Games medal.

Shane Perkins then went on to represent his country and claim the gold medal in the Men's individual sprint event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Shane Perkins later apologised and withdrew from the men's team sprint.

Shane Perkins competed in the Men's Sprint, Men's Keirin, and Men's Team Sprint.

Shane Perkins was part of the Australian sprint team that finished 4th, finished 5th in the keirin but won the bronze medal in the individual sprint.

Since 2015, Shane Perkins was not considered to be a candidate to the Australian international team, in particular, he missed the 2016 Summer Olympics.

On 15 February 2017, it was announced that Shane Perkins was in the process of acquiring Russian citizenship with the goal to race for the Russian team at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

At the national championships, Shane Perkins won gold with the Moscow team.

Shane Perkins then won bronze in the individual sprint event, losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Pavel Yakushevskiy.

Shane Perkins beat Alexey Tkachev in the bronze medal match.

Shane Perkins participated in the team sprint and keirin event.

Shane Perkins's team consisting of Pavel Yakushevskiy and Denis Dmitriev took the fourth place after losing the bronze medal race to the Dutch.

Bayley crashed when Shane Perkins moved down on him during a race, burning a hole in the back of his skinsuit.

The relationship between the two riders was given another dimension, when Shane Perkins announced his engagement to Bayley's younger sister, Kristine Bayley.

Shane Perkins's father was treated in Germany for 6 weeks and then returned to Australia for further recovery.

Shane Perkins was grateful of the reception and decided to race again in 2019 Six Days of Berlin.