Craig MacLean MBE (Grantown-on-Spey, July 31, 1971) is a Scottish track cyclist who represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, winning a silver medal in the Team Sprint at the 2000 Olympics. MacLean returned to the sport as a sighted guide in the Paralympics, piloting Neil Fachie to two gold medals in the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, and Anthony Kappes to a gold medal in the 2012 Paralympic Games. MacLean is only the second athlete, after Hungarian fencer Pál Szekeres, ever to win medals at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
MacLean has also won medals in five UCI Track World Championships in the team Sprint, Silver in 1999, Silver in 2000, Bronze in 2001, Gold in 2002, Bronze in 2003, and Bronze in 2004. MacLean also won a bronze medal for Scotland in the Team sprint at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold medal in the event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia. As a sighted guide to Neil Fachie he won a further two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in, and for, his native Scotland. In the Commonwealth Games, certain para-cycling events are integrated as full medal events into the program.
He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to cycling.[3]
Born in Grantown-on-Spey,[1] MacLean kicked off his cycling career as second man in the Great Britain Team Sprint until switching to lead man in 2002. He broke the GB kilometre record at the Olympic Trials in 2004.
MacLean's career as a member of the British elite team came to a close in 2008. He suffered from a mystery illness ( later diagnosed as Coeliac disease) for the majority of his career so could no longer perform at the level required. This, coupled with the form of rising stars like Jason Kenny and resurgence of fellow veteran Jamie Staff, meant that he narrowly missed out on the squad for the World Championships and Olympic games.
MacLean declared that the Manchester round of the World Cup Classics in November 2008 was his last ride as a UCI accredited rider. In the World Cup round he competed in the Keirin and Sprint for the Plowman Craven Trade team. He won his Keirin heat but was relegated by the officials. In the sprint he qualified in the top 5 but lost in the first round after a controversial move by his German opponent.[citation needed]
He sat out international competition for two years from 2008 to 2010, the mandatory requirement to become a pilot for para-cycling tandem racing.[4] At the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, MacLean piloted Neil Fachie to golds in the Tandem B Sprint and Tandem B 1000m Time Trial.[5][6]
In 2012, he switched to piloting Anthony Kappes, with Barney Storey piloting Fachie; the move was a success for both tandems, as each tandem team won a gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games. In doing so, MacLean became only the second athlete to win medals at both Olympic and Paralympic Games.
While sitting out international competition, he continued to make some racing appearances at the Revolution events in Manchester. He appeared at Revolution 22 in December 2008, competing in the Sprint and Keirin events.
MacLean reunited with Neil Fachie for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where the pairing won gold in the kilo time trial.[7] They followed this up with another gold in the sprint where they came back from losing their first ride in the final to beat the Australian duo of Kieran Modra and Jason Niblett 2–1.[8]
In 2007 MacLean had an experimental documentary made about him called Standing Start made by BAFTA winner Adrian McDowall and Finlay Pretsell.[citation needed] The film documents MacLean in his build up to the World Cup team sprint win in 2007. The film has screened worldwide and premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.[citation needed]
In November 2008 Craig took up the challenge of becoming a Bobsleigh competitor for the BBC programme 'Bobsleigh Challenge', which was broadcast in February 2009. This programme challenged Craig and fellow British sportsmen Jason Gardener, Dean Macey and Dan Luger to qualify for the British Championships in Italy, with only 10 days training. Craig teamed up with Luger as one team, while Macey and Gardener made up the other team. After training the teams had to complete two runs down the course without crashing to qualify. After a number of crashes, when both Craig and Dan were driving, both did qualify. However a number further crashes and injuries sustained by Craig meant that they did not complete two runs in the actual competition and were not classified. Just qualifying for the event with only 10 days training was still a remarkable achievement. The other team of Macey and Gardener went one better and finished 6th overall in the competition, ahead of one of the Great Britain Olympic Development teams.
Craig is featured alongside Chris Hoy in a book by Richard Moore, Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution. This describes how Maclean and Hoy were key figures in the rise of British Track Cycling. The book was published in June 2008 by HarperCollins. (ISBN 9780007265312)
In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.[9]
