Pat McQuaid

Pat (Patrick) McQuaid

Pat McQuaid in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Patrick McQuaid
Born	(1949-09-05) 5 September 1949 Dublin, Ireland
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	President of UCI, 2005-2013
Amateur team
Professional team
1978–1979	Viking–Campagnolo
Major wins
Road Race Champion 1974 Tour of Ireland 1975 & 1976 Tour of the Pennines 1978

Patrick "Pat" McQuaid (born 5 September 1949 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish road racing cyclist, who had a strong amateur career and a brief professional period before moving into race promotion and administration in Ireland and globally, eventually serving two 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 physical education school teacher.

Family background

McQuaid comes from a cycling family, with his father Jim and uncle Paddy being top amateur cyclists, and also both, especially his uncle, having roles in national cycling organisation. His parents came from Dungannon in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Jim and Madge McQuaid raised 10 children, seven sons and three daughters. All seven sons 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.

Currently there are 3 'McQuaid cycles' bicycle shops in Dublin, 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 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 tripartite management of Team Wiggins.

Cycling career

McQuaid raced from 1966 to 1982, starting as a junior and then 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. He also rode for the Clifton Cycling Club in Leeds, Yorkshire for some time in the late 1960s.

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 physical education teacher at what is now St Mary's University, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham near London. During his later amateur cycling career, his two years with Viking, and for a time after, he worked in that capacity, first at Greenhills College in Walkinstown, a suburb of Dublin, where he held a full-time temporary post for three years. With a young family, at the age of 26, he was offered an interview for a permanent post, but chose instead to leave the job and focus on racing, in anticipation of the following year's Montreal Olympic Games. He later returned to teaching, at Ballinteer Community School. He also worked part-time on P.E. at Synge Street CBS.

Cycling administration

Having taken at least one leave of absence, McQuaid moved fully into race organisation in 1985, and then later full-time sports administration. Highlights of this part of his career include:

Cycling in Ireland

• 1983 - 1986 (Appointed) Irish National Team Director
• 1985 - 1993 Founding Director of the Nissan Tour of Ireland
• 1995 - 1999 Elected to the Board of the Irish Cycling Federation, directly to the post of President
• 1998 - 0000 Director of the Grand Depart for the Tour de France in Ireland

McQuaid ran for the post of President of the ICF in November 1994, losing heavily, but won a clear mandate in 1995, and was re-elected in 1997. In 1997, he was also elected to the Management Board of the international cycling federation, and due to the workload from this, and the coming of the Tour de France to Ireland in 1998, for the final year of his time as President, the role was split, with a new role of Chairman to look after domestic duties, while McQuaid focused on international representation. ICF rules did not allow for a new term in 1999, but he continued with the international governing body.

International race organisation

• 1993 - 1997 Director of the Tour of the Philippines
• 1993 - 2004 Director of the Tour of Langkawi (Malaysia)

International cycling management

• 1997 - 2005 (Elected) Member of the Board of Management of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)
• 1997 - 2005 (Appointed) President of the UCI Road Commission
• 2005 - 2013 (Elected, 2005 and 2009) President of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)

McQuaid put himself forward for election as UCI President in 2005, after 14 years of Hein Verbruggen's leadership. His predecessor, also running, withdrew at the last minute, as did another candidate, and he won strongly (31-11), making him the first Irish leader of a major global sports federation.

During his time in office McQuaid extended anti-doping measures, including the biological passport of which the UCI was a pioneer, and addressed a dispute with the Amaury Sport Organisation (AMO, organisers of the Tour de France) bequeathed by his predecessor, and tensions with the organisers of the two other Grand Tours, developing a new form of professional tour, and overseeing an expansion of paid cycling and broadcast activity, as well as promoting new races worldwide and promoting cycling in less active territories. Further problems arose with the AMO from time to time, but they did not become acute again during McQuaid's time in office.

On Friday 27 September 2013, McQuaid was a candidate for a third term as UCI President, with Brian Cookson the only other candidate. He had originally been nominated by the cycling federations of his countries of origin, Ireland, and residence, Switzerland, but both nominations were withdrawn. The election proceeded based on two third country nominations, allowed under a then-new UCI rule. The election took place at the UCI Congress in Florence, and Cookson prevailed by 24-18 votes. McQuaid, who had been in office since 2005, had pledged not to launch a legal challenge should he be defeated, in particular reference to the allegations of that votes had been bought by the member of the UCI Committee of Management from Turkmenistan, an ethnic Russian, who wanted McQuaid removed.

Olympic and WADA roles

• 2006 - 2014 (Elected) Member of the Board of Management of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), Vice-President 2009-2014
• 2009 - 2012 (Elected) Member of the Executive & Foundation Board of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA)
• 2009 - 2014 (Elected) Member of the Board of SportAccord, the association of sports federations and related bodies
• 2010 - 2013 (Elected) Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), appointed to two IOC Commissions, Women in Sport, and Entourage, 2010-2013

Corruption allegations, lawsuits and vindication

For much of his term in office, McQuaid had to deal with allegations of doping in the sport, and as a result was also involved in defamation lawsuits, in Switzerland, against people who accused the UCI of corruption and insufficient action against the problem, most notably with regard to Lance Armstrong.

In September 2013, during the presidential election campaign, a dossier, allegedly prepared by the UCI Committee of Management member from Turkmenistan, Igor Makarov, supported by a USA delegate, was leaked to the press - it contained allegations that McQuaid had made a promotional deal with Makarov, that the UCI had sought payment to cover up Alberto Contador's 2010 positive drug test, and that McQuaid made private arrangements with Lance Armstrong regarding drugs testing and race appearances. McQuaid denied all the allegations, as did Armstrong for his part.

The UCI set up the Cycling Independent Reform Committee (CIRC) to investigate various allegations. The CIRC interviewed UCI staff, cyclists and support staff, as well as having access to the UCI computer servers, accounts, departments and email and phone records, including those of McQuaid, both personal and business, in order to fully carry out their investigations. In March 2015, the CIRC report was made public. It stated that some matters might have been better handled, expressing concern that Lance Armstrong had received flexible treatment on several occasions, including being allowed to return to competition for a key event, the Tour Down Under, 13 days earlier than a six month deadline, while he was also being asked to join a race in Ireland. However, it concluded that there was no evidence to support allegations against McQuaid of bribery from Armstrong, corruption or collusion with doping.

Later life

McQuaid left the UCI and cycling administration, and Switzerland, after failing to win re-election, and now lives in the south of France, running a holiday accommodation business.

Family life

McQuaid is married; his wife, Aileen McQuaid (née Carmody), was also a secondary school teacher. He lived in Ballinteer in the southern suburbs of Dublin, then Roundwood in County Wicklow, and later in Switzerland, before settling in Correns, Vert Provence, in 2015.

Awards

In March 2008, McQuaid was promoted to Commander in the Order of the Ivory Coast Sporting Merit (Commandeur dans l'ordre du mérite sportif de Côte d'Ivoire).