Alyssa Polites is a track and road cyclist who was awarded a Tier 1 Scholarship within the 2023 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program. Her Mentor is one of the most successful swimmers of all time, Leisel Jones OAM.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, it was out of jealousy of her younger brother that she took up an interest into cycling, as he received a second-hand road bike after their father had another crack at club racing with Caulfield Carnegie Cycling Club again in 2015.
In 2018, Alyssa received her first national track bronze medal in the U15 women’s team sprint leading her to believe she’d go down the track sprint pathway, until she was quickly picked up by Hilton Clarke OAM who quickly changed that for the better.
After four years as a coach and athlete duo, Alyssa came away with an impressive collection of national medals, along with national records in the individual pursuit and teams’ pursuit track disciplines that still currently stand today.
2021 was an incredibly successful year for Alyssa who, at the Track National Championships, won all four events; 2km Individual Pursuit (IP), 4km Teams’ Pursuit (TP), Points Race and Madison and broke two Australian records; 2km IP and 4km TP. Later that year, she won both the Individual Time Trial (by over 30seconds) and Road Race (solo by over 3minutes) at the Road National Championships. She then finished the year off by breaking her own national 2km U19 Individual Pursuit record four times.
This success carried into her first year in elite women, when she joined the AusCycling Team Podium Potential Academy in 2022. She proved her selection at the National Elite Women’s Road Championships when she finished third and first in the U23.
Shortly after this success, she signed with Team Bike Exchange Jayco, a women’s world tour pro road cycling team, for the 2023/2024 seasons. Following this, Alyssa made the team selection into the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games Women’s’ track endurance squad however, due to contracting COVID19 wasn’t able to recover in time to make ride the Teams’ Pursuit.
Alyssa’s success extends out of sport as she studies a double degree at Deakin University – Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science/Bachelor of Business (Sports Management). She takes joy and pride spending time with junior cyclists and athletes in the hope to give back to the sport and inspire future generations.
“It is such an honour to be successfully selected as a part of this year’s Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentor Program and join the list of Australia’s best high performing athletes. The mentoring aspect could not of come at a better time in my early career and I’m really looking forward to learning and seeing sport from a different perspective with the help of my mentor, Leisel Jones.”– Alyssa Polites on being selected as a 2023 Tier 1 Scholarship Holder.
Honours & Achievements
- 2021: 2021 Road National Championships – 1st
- 2021: Track National Championships – 1st
- 2022: Fed Uni National U23 Road Championships, Road Race – 1st
- 2022: Fed Uni National Elite Women’s Road Championships, Road Race – 3rd
- 2022: 2022 UCI Track Nations Cup Milton, Teams Pursuit – 2nd
- 2022: 2022 UCI Track Nations Cup Milton, Elimination – 7th
- 2022: Birmingham Commonwealth Games, 4000m Women Team Pursuit – Gold
- 2023: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship Holder
