Dean Woods

Who is Dean Woods?

Dean Anthony Woods, OAM is an Australian racing cyclist from Wangaratta in Victoria known for his track cycling at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. On Australia Day 1985 he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for service to cycling. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Woods, with team mates Michael Grenda, Kevin Nichols, and Michael Turtur, won the 4000m team pursuit. Critics did not give them much chance. The team was coached by Charlie Walsh and dubbed Charlie's Angels. In the final the Australians defeated the USA by 3.86 seconds, even though the Australians were riding conventional bikes while the Americans had high-tech machines. Woods told The Border Mail in 2004, "Expectations weren't high for us from the press, but we thought we would do pretty well. We had a close team."

In the 4000m individual pursuit Woods was beaten for bronze by Leonard Nitz.

In the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul Wayne McCarney, Stephen McGlede, Scott McGrory, Brett Dutton and Woods won the bronze medal for the team pursuit, defeated by the USSR and German Democratic Republic. In the individual pursuit Woods won the silver medal.