Seven years of denial, a diagnosis that crushed her, and a para-cycling debut that only came in 2025. The road to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome was never supposed to be this short, or this remarkable for Tara Neyland. Then in Glasgow, Neyland didn’t just win gold in the C4-C5 Women’s Individual Pursuit and shatter the world record. She did it by a margin that left her nearest competitor over 20 seconds behind. One year into her para-cycling career, and she’s already rewriting what’s possible.

The 32-year-old has been doing that for the better part of a year now since her debut, and the Commonwealth Games’ gold is just the latest. Less than three years ago, her diagnosis of muscular dystrophy left her reeling. “I was a mess,” she had said.

“Muscles don’t work the way they used to, but the human body is amazingly adaptable and finds ways to compensate,” Neyland told Nine.com.au. “I’m not in pain per se; I just have to find alternative ways to stabilise and complete movements.

“What’s quite scary is that you don’t know what muscle might atrophy next, and you don’t know how quickly or how slowly it will happen. I guess there’s an anxiety of what’s going to happen next, and then also a lot of grief when that does happen, and you can go down the mindset of worrying what your future will look like.”

Her symptoms first appeared nine years ago, when she was 22. All Neyland was doing then was going through her regular routine, training as a triathlete. That’s when she noticed that her right calf had become significantly smaller. In her words, “the muscle bulk had wasted” although she could still use her leg. The Australian had a feeling that something was going on but continued living her life.

Two years later and her upper back muscles were next to go and she still put off testing. That was mainly because Neyland was still competing as a triathlete. And she loved her dual life as an athlete and osteopath, and didn’t want that to change.

“I didn’t want to accept that something was wrong, and I didn’t want to be told I couldn’t do what I was doing in sport,” the Melburnian revealed. “There was a lot of denial. I had my own internalised ableism. I didn’t want to be seen as different.”

Eventually, that decision was forced upon her and at 29, she went to a doctor, hoping that it wasn’t the disease that had rocked her family. But it was indeed Muscular dystrophy. That’s an incurable degenerative group of genetic diseases that causes the muscles to waste away. It’s also a disease that Tara Neyland’s family has been battling for generations, ranging from her grandfather to her brother and uncle.

It left her in the darkest spot she’d ever been. She never told her family the battle she was going through, given how much it had already taken from them. That eventually changed, and the Paris Paralympics in 2024 also changed her perspective and future as an athlete.

“I was in a very dark space. Watching the Paris Paralympics [in 2024] inspired me – seeing athletes doing extraordinary things despite their impairments. It helped me realise that regardless of this diagnosis, I am capable, and it doesn’t have to stop me.”

That shift in mindset has transformed Neyland’s career in little over a year. It took her from a Paralympics spectator wondering what might be possible to a world-record holder. Fittingly, after the biggest ride of her life, the Australian reflected on a performance that surpassed even her own expectations.

Tara Neyland reflects on her incredible gold medal race

A year ago, nobody knew who Tara Neyland was in the Paralympic or even as a cyclist. Now, she owns five world championship gold medals and a Commonwealth Gold Medal. In fact, she won the C4 Road Race, C4 Track Elimination, and set a world record in the C4 1k TT. 

All that in 2025 despite losing muscle mass in her shoulders, left hip, core and right calf to muscular dystrophy. None of that has stopped her, though, as Neyland set a benchmark during the qualifying in the 4000m race.

Her time of 4:49.648 minutes was a new world record in the distance. Then she clocked 4:50.477 in the final to win gold. In fact, she was so dominant that her victory was nearly twenty seconds faster than England’s Morgan Newberry, who won silver.

“I had big hopes and I really wanted to try and execute the plan and stay calm,” Neyland said according to Australian Cycling Team.com. “And I was really glad to pull it together.”

“It’s been so incredible to be here. I have not actually raced in a velodrome with like this level of crowd, and it’s just been really exciting to hear them all, especially on the back straight, coming home on the last lap. They really pushed me to the end. It was very, very special.”

With another gold medal and a world record already to her name in Glasgow, Tara Neyland’s comeback story is still being written. She returns to the velodrome next as the reigning world champion in the 1000m time trial, carrying the chance to add another major title to her name.