Patrick "Pat" McQuaid (born 5 September 1949 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish former road racing cyclist who served as the president of the Union Cycliste Internationale from 2005 to 2013.
He had a strong amateur career and a brief professional period, before moving into race promotion and administration in Ireland and globally, serving four years as head of Irish cycling's governing body, and later two four-year terms as president of the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and three years as a member of the International Olympic Committee. McQuaid is also a qualified secondary school teacher.
Family background
McQuaid comes from a cycling family, with his father Jim being a top amateur cyclist and later coach and official, and his uncle a leader in national cycling organisation. His parents came from Dungannon in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where his father already raced. The McQuaids moved to Dublin due to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which had more opportunities and which provided a better atmosphere for mixed couples (his mother was Protestant and his father Catholic), and settled in Dublin's northern suburbs. On Ballygall Road, in the locality of Ballygall between Glasnevin and Finglas, Jim McQuaid ran a greengrocers and bakery, opposite a general store belonging to his brother, and the family lived above the shop.
Jim (d. 1991) and Madge McQuaid raised 10 children, seven sons and three daughters. Pat McQuaid was the firstborn, in Dublin in 1949. All seven brothers raced. Paul, Oliver and Darach McQuaid, the youngest of the ten, as well as cousin John McQuaid represented Ireland in world road championships and some in Olympic road racing. McQuaid himself was inspired by Shay Elliott, who visited his home when he was 12 or 13.
Over the last twenty years there have been family-owned 'McQuaid cycles' bicycle shops in Dublin, beginning, and remaining, with one in Ballygall, while a brother, Kieron McQuaid, is the second largest importer of bikes in Ireland, and another, Paul, runs a bicycle rental shop at Ussher's Island. Two of Pat McQuaid's sons have long established business interests in the sport - David McQuaid owns DMC Sports and is the general manager of an international cycling team, while Andrew McQuaid is a lawyer, rider agent and a member of the three-person management team of Team Wiggins.
Cycling career
McQuaid raced from 1966 to 1982, starting as a junior and then riding nationally and internationally as a senior.
Amateur period
McQuaid rode for the small elite club founded in 1949 by his father and uncle, Emerald Cycling Club. The club was heavily involved in domestic road racing, international racing and cycling administration in Ireland. He also rode for the Clifton Cycling Club in Leeds, Yorkshire for some time in the late 1960s, and later still for a year in France.
He was Irish national road champion in 1974. He won two of Ireland's three main road cycling events, the Tour of Ireland twice, in 1975 and 1976, and the Shay Elliott Memorial Race.
South Africa visit
McQuaid, his brother Kieron, and Sean Kelly, went to South Africa to ride the Rapport Tour stage-race in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games. They and others rode under false names because of an international ban on athletes competing in South Africa - a protest against apartheid. The three Irish were detected, and suspended from racing for seven months by the national governing body, the Irish Cycling Federation. They were allowed back two months early, and were racing again, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned them from the Olympics (this did not inhibit McQuaid from becoming a member of the IOC itself later).
Professional period
At the end of his career, he rode for the Viking Cycles professional team in Britain.
Educational career
McQuaid qualified as a teacher of physical education (PE) and mathematics at Strawberry Hill Teacher Training College (now St Mary's University), Strawberry Hill, Twickenham near London. After qualification he worked as a teacher for year in England, including a period teaching at a young offender institution in Kidderminster.