Steven Burke

Steven James Burke (born 4 March 1988) is a former English track and road cyclist, who rode for the now disbanded cycling team. He represented Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics, beating his pre Olympics personal best in the individual pursuit by eleven seconds, to take the bronze medal. He stood on the podium alongside his cycling idol, gold medallist Bradley Wiggins.

During 2012, Burke was part of the Great Britain team that won the Olympic and World Championships, in the Team Pursuit discipline. He was part of the GB Team, that retained the team pursuit title at the 2016 Olympics. Burke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours on 29 December 2012, for services to cycling.

Early life Burke was born in Burnley and lived in Colne, Lancashire during his early life, attending Park High School and later Nelson and Colne College (which named its sports centre after him). Born into a cycling family, both Burke's grandfather Brian Wesson, and his mother Sharon, have competed at national level. His dad Alvin also was a cyclist and competed in many time trials.

He began attending Manchester Velodrome as a teenager, previously being more interested in football.

Career Despite specialising in the team pursuit, Burke has an impressive turn of speed, demonstrated by his success as a junior in the scratch and kilo events. He was consistently beating Mark Cavendish in sprints, during training in 2007.

Burke has an impressive Olympic Games record having never been beaten in the Team Pursuit. Burke took the decision to retire in 2019 after achieving his Olympic goal of retaining their TP title.

Major results Track

2005 National Junior Championships

3rd Points race 3rd Scratch

2006

2007 UEC European Under-23 Championships

3rd Individual pursuit National Championships

3rd Team pursuit, UCI World Cup Classics, Manchester 2008 National Championships

3rd Kilo

2009

2011

2012

2013

2014 UCI World Cup 1st Team pursuit, London 2nd Team pursuit, Guadalajara

2nd Individual pursuit, National Championships 2015

3rd Kilo, National Championships 2016

World records Discipline Record Date Event Velodrome Team pursuit 3:53.295 4 April 2012 World Championships Hisense Arena (Melbourne) 3:52.499 2 August 2012 Olympic Games Lee Valley (London) 3:51.659 3 August 2012 3:50.570 12 August 2016 Olympic Games Rio Olympic 3:50.265