Australian four-time sprint world champion Kaarle McCulloch has been snapped up by British Cycling to coach the next wave of potential GB women track medal winners.
The appointment of the 34-year-old Sydney star as the British women's podium sprint coach came the day after Britain's most bemedalled Olympian Sir Jason Kenny was revealed as the coach of the equivalent men's squad.
The hope is that the much-decorated pair will help restore Britain's former prominence in the track sprints, with McCulloch declaring her excitement at the new role which will begin in April after she relocates from Australia.
McCulloch retired from racing in November last year, ending a glittering career in which, as well as her four world titles, she took three Commonwealth golds and an Olympic bronze in the team sprint at the 2012 London Olympics.
Her last major outing in last year's Olympics in Tokyo, after she'd struggled with injuries in the build-up, ended with her finishing ninth in the keirin and 13th in the individual sprint.
"I am very excited about the opportunity to join the Great Britain Cycling Team," McCulloch said.
"After 15 years at the highest level as an athlete and being a part of the evolution of the sport, I feel I have a lot to offer both the athletes and my colleagues on the staff.
"I have always appreciated coaches' impact on my career and on myself as a person.
"I hope to make the best of what I have learned from all the people I have come into contact with over the years, put it together in my own way, and positively impact the athletes and staff that I will work alongside."
Since the brilliant Vicky Pendleton's retirement in 2012, women's sprinting has been one of the weaker areas in British cycling and they failed to qualify for the team event in Tokyo, while Katy Marchant was sixth in the individual sprint.
The team sprint has always been McCulloch's speciality, having won the world title four times and eight world championship medals in all in the discipline.
She will have some very promising cyclists to help mould after the youthful Milly Tanner, Lauren Bate and Blaine Ridge-Davis took bronze at last October's World Championships for Britain in Roubaix.
British cycling have signed up an athlete renowned for giving everything.
As McCulloch herself said after her retirement: "I wasn't the most talented athlete, but I was the hardest working, the most persistent. You'd ask me how high you want me to jump, and I'd do a little bit more."
British Cycling performance director Stephen Park hailed her "exceptional career on the bike", adding: "I know that her experience and understanding of top-level racing will be of huge benefit to our current crop of sprinters as they build towards their ambitions for Paris and LA Olympics."
McCulloch takes over from Jan van Eijden, who left the British team in November to become head coach for his home German Cycling Federation.
