Grant Rex Rice

An excellent all round cyclist, Grant achieved success both on the track and the road, as well as in endurance tour events.

As a 17 year-old in 1985, he won a bronze medal at the national road race titles in Adelaide. Showing his versatility, Grant then went on to win a silver medal on the track in 1989 and, in 1993, won a team's first place in the highly prestigious Commonwealth Bank Classic. A further gold medal came in the 1993 King of the Mountains section of the Tour of Taiwan.

Grant's selection in an Australian team was inevitable given the skill, determination and dedication he displayed to reach his personal pinnacle of achievement. His first major representation was at the 1991 World Cycling Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, followed by the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, where he finished tenth in the gruelling individual road race against the best in the world. As well, he and his teammates finished eleventh in the teams time trial event.

In the same year he won a silver medal in the individual road race at the Oceania Games and one year later, at the 1993 World Cycling Championships, he finished fifth in the teams time trial in Norway.

Selected for the 1994 Commonwealth Games team, Grant finished fifth in the individual road race in Victoria, Canada. Again in 1994, he entered the Branden Tour of Tasmania and - against some of the best in Australia - he won the gold medal for the individual road race.

At the state level, Grant was eight times Tasmanian track and road cycling champion, a quite remarkable feat in these days of more specialised cycling pursuits.

In 1991 he was recognised for his wonderful achievements as a cyclist when he was awarded the Tasmanian Sports Star Award as Tasmania's top sportsperson for that year.

Grant was a leader among his peers, which was reflected in his selection as captain of the national men's road cycling team from 1991 to 1995. His athletic ability was also recognised, with him being awarded a Tasmanian Institute of Sport scholarship from 1989 until 1991 and an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship from 1990 to 1993.

As a leader, a brilliant cyclist, a role model and an athlete of unquestioned sportsmanship, Grant Rice rightly deserves his place in the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.