Clyde’s Nicole Shields (25) inspired the next generation of Central’s athletes, after visiting Clyde School yesterday morning and talking about her path to winning an Olympic silver medal.

The Clyde School kapa haka group and principal Steph Kitto welcomed her to the school hall, where she spoke about her training, her past health challenges and how she got started in cycling.

Watch a short video of the welcome (two minutes). VIDEO: The Central App 

Nicole attended Clyde School from Year 5-8, leaving in 2012, and then attending Dunstan High School (DHS).

“When I was 14 or 15, I would ride to school every day from Earnscleugh along the river track.”

She said she had fond memories of eating crabapples from the crabapple tree and playing lots of sports on the Clyde School field.

Nicole visited classrooms individually, signed autographs, let students hold her medal and look closely at her NZ team race suit. PHOTO: The Central App

Her love of cycling grew, and she started track cycling at the Invercargill velodrome during her years at DHS.

She was selected for the New Zealand junior world championships in 2016 in Aigle, Switzerland and 2017 in Montichiari, Italy. 

Nicole gained experience in the professional road scene, racing for DNA Road Cycling from 2020-2022.

Then she all but gave up cycling, with two years away from the sport, suffering with long covid and chronic fatigue.

“In 2022 I lived on a couch . . . 2023 was riding the highs and lows of illness and injury.

“I spent a long time out of sport trying to get back in and get healthy.”

She took a break from racing in 2019 and returned competitively in December 2023.

It all came together at the Paris Olympics; her second race in four years with a team of her mates - Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman.

They won the silver medal in the team pursuit, behind the United States by 0.621 seconds.  

A Clyde School student asked her if she bit her medal, she replied “no, I kissed it.”

Nicole said for the entire day before the medal race she was the most nervous she had ever been in her life.

“But then at the start line I was very relaxed and calm.”

She described winning the medal as amazing, but said solely chasing medals wasn’t a worthwhile thing to do. 

“In life there are a lot of other things that make you just as proud and just as happy.”

Year 8 student Jack Adamson thanked Nicole on behalf of the school students and staff. PHOTO: The Central App

Nicole is around Central for another couple of weeks, walking in the Alexandra Blossom Festival's Grand Parade on Saturday, and you just might spot her cycling on her favourite circuits, the gravel road up the Crawfords, or over to Bannockburn. 

The Central App plans to share more about what Nicole’s been up to in the district in the coming days.

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