The Australian will retire having gone from not owning a bike less than a decade ago to winning Olympic and world titles in the same year

One of the hardest things in elite sport is knowing when to quit. For athletes who strive to go faster, jump higher, break records and win more, quitting is an unnatural thought. The extraordinary level of determination required to reach the upper echelons of any sporting discipline makes choosing when to pull the pin an agonising decision.

All of which underscores how remarkable Grace Brown’s golden and in some ways premature swansong has been this year. The 32-year-old Australian announced in June that she would retire at the end of the season, despite being in career-best form.