Georgia Baker heads to her third Olympics at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome near Paris with memories of her quadrennial battle. Nevertheless, the valuable experience she has accumulated so far will make this a competition she will never forget.

The Olympic journey, or cycling career, has not been an easy road for the Tasmanian, but her tenacity in overcoming all obstacles and heading back to the Olympics may help bring her a dream result in Paris.

"I'm hoping for a third time," Baker told reporters, including Cycling News, at a pre-Olympic media conference. 'I think I've learned a lot. I think I was only 20 or 21 when I was an athlete in Rio. I've definitely changed as a person and as a cyclist, and I think I've learned something big at every Olympics.

"I'm a lot more relaxed this time and I feel a little bit different. I want it to be a really good Olympics, a positive Olympics."

In his first competition, Baker was not only a young athlete competing in his first Olympic Games, but he had also encountered the toughest ordeal of all, having lost his father unexpectedly in 2015, as the crucial steps to Olympic selection were unfolding. Then, somehow, driven by the knowledge that this was what her father would have wanted, she found a way to reemerge, but after competing in Rio in 2016, things did not go according to plan.

The bulk of the Team Pursuit team, including Baker, suffered a major crash in training two days after the competition, and the then world champion and gold medal contender had to overcome her injuries. The result was fifth place.

Her road to Tokyo was not so easy, as she was slow to deal with the grief of losing her father, dealt with the disappointment of a fall in a crucial pre-Olympic training session, and had to undergo heart surgery for supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in 2017.

And at the Tokyo Olympics, delayed by COVID-19 and missing international competition due to strict anti-pandemic rules, the Australian Team Pursuit team had a disappointing showing in qualifying, finishing fifth again and seventh in Madison. Baker said at the time that he was "a little short" from Tokyo.

The 2023 season was not all smooth sailing in the run-up to Paris, as he underwent a small surgery for an irregular heartbeat and was off the bike again, but overall it was very different.

First, Baker changed direction and will join Liv-Alura-Jacco on the road in 2022, but he still has his dreams on the track. At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the combination paid off considerably, with Baker taking three gold medals in the women's road race, the track points race, and the team pursuit with her teammates.

"We had a great run in Birmingham, and I think we all had our A-game on the team, especially in the women's group. 'We learned a lot from that. Hopefully we'll have a similar result. [Especially in Team Pursuit, it's hard to have five girls and four girls flying on the same day. Especially in Team Pursuit, it is difficult to have five girls and four girls flying on the same day. 0]

To achieve this goal, the Australian track team (Baker, Alexandra Manley, Maeve Plouffe, Sophie Edwards, and Chloe Moran in the women's endurance event) went to a training camp in Portugal for the Olympic Games. Baker and Manley also did a test run at the Belgian open track meet at the end of June, and Baker said the timing "gave us an idea of what we needed to pick up, the slight changes we needed to work on, and our strengths."

Baker will compete in three events on the track at the Paris Olympics from Tuesday, August 6 through Sunday, August 11, first in the Team Pursuit, then the Madison with Manley, and finally the Omnium. Clearly, the priority events for Baker are the Team Pursuit on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Madison on Friday, where she will be paired with her good friend and longtime track and road teammate Manley.

The pair won a silver medal at the 2023 Glasgow World Championships behind the pair of Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker. However, Archibald, who also won gold in Madison, Tokyo, broke her leg and tore a ligament in an unforeseen accident in her garden in June.

"It's super unfortunate for Katie," Archibald said. But so many things have changed with Katie gone."

"Especially in races like the Omnium and Madison, she has a really special style and is very strong.

But whether the experienced pair of Manley and Baker will be even stronger remains to be seen.

Get unlimited access to all coverage of the 2024 Olympics, including breaking news and analysis from local journalists in each event, including road, mountain bike, track, and BMX races. Details.