Dean Woods
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's Cycling | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1984 Los Angeles | 4000m Team Pursuit | |
| Silver | 1988 Seoul | 4000m Individual Pursuit | |
| Bronze | 1988 Seoul | 4000m Team Pursuit | |
| Bronze | 1996 Atlanta | 4000m Team Pursuit | |
Dean Woods (born June 22, 1966) is an Australian cyclist from Wangaratta in regional Victoria known for his track cycling achievements at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games levels. On Australia Day 1985 Woods was awarded the Order of Australia medal for service to the sport of cycling.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Woods, with team mates Michael Grenda, Kevin Nicholls, and Michael Turtur, won the gold medal for the 4000m Team pursuit event. Critics at the time did not give them much chance for success. The team was coached by Charlie Walsh and were dubbed Charlie's Angels. In the final the Australians defeated the U.S.A. team by 3.86 seconds, despite the disparity in the Australians riding conventional bikes while the Americans had expensive, high-tech machines. Dean Woods told The Border Mail in 2004, "Expectations weren't high for us from the press, but we thought we would do pretty well. We had a close team and ended up beating the U.S. for gold."
In the 4000m Individual pursuit at the 1984 Summer Olympics Woods was beaten for the bronze medal by Leonard Nitz (USA).
In the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul the Australian team with Wayne McCarney, Stephen McGlede, Scott McGrory, Brett Dutton and Dean Woods was awarded a bronze medal for the 4000m Team Pursuit event, being defeated by the USSR (gold) and German Democratic Republic (silver). In the 4000m Individual Pursuit event Woods won the silver medal.
Woods was not selected for the Australian team at the 1992 Summer Olympics, but participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics winning a bronze medal as part of the Australian team in the 4000m Team Pursuit.
At the 1986 Commonwealth Games Woods won the gold medal in the 4000m Individual Pursuit event.
In the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic Dean Woods set the race record time of 5 hours and 12 minutes in 1990.
Following his retirement from competitive cycling, Dean Woods established and works at a bicycle shop, Dean Woods Direct, at Wangaratta.
