IN 2016, Jack Bobridge was on top of the world having won his second Australian road championship title and Olympic silver medal – now, three years later, the former Gawler cycling star has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for drug trafficking.
Bobridge, 29, was convicted during a hearing at the District Court of Western Australia on Friday morning, where he was found guilty of supplying 301 ecstasy tablets to fellow elite cyclist Alex McGregor between March and July 2017.
The former Olympian – who has Gawler’s Jack Bobridge bike track named in his honour – maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
The court heard that while racing professionally in Europe and the United States between 2010 and 2016, Bobridge began taking cocaine and ecstasy, the latter he became addicted to.
He began supplying ecstasy pills to McGregor – whom he had known since 2014 through cycling – in early 2017, who on-sold some of them to an undercover police officer involved in Operation Inception, which targeted drug dealers in Perth’s nightclubs and bars, later that year.
Judge Stephen Scott set a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years for the offending, describing Bobridge’s fall from grace as “an absolute tragedy”.
“In your case, you’ve been an outstanding athlete,” he said. “You represented the country with significant distinction.
“You are a relatively young man, although you’re not of an age where that is mitigatory.
“General deterrence however, Mr Bobridge, is an important principle in sentencing you.
“It’s one thing to be a user of drugs and it’s one thing to be a
supplier.
“I’ve been on this court a long time and I can well understand  the susceptibility that a heavy user of drugs has to become involved in more sinister activities.
“But the fact that you had a dependency is of no excuse for supplying drugs that find their way, as you well knew, into our community.”
Defence counsel Sam Vandongen, prior to Judge Scott’s sentencing, said Bobridge had used his profile as an elite cyclist to “give back to the community”, describing him as an “exceptionally nice, genuine person”.
“He’s done things for the community which have resulted in, for example, a ward in the (Royal) Adelaide Hospital in the cancer ward being named after him,” he said.
“I just wanted to emphasise that he’s not a person who’s just selfishly gone off and cycled; he’s actually put back into the community and been an otherwise valuable member of the
community.”
However, prosecutor Joel Grinceri argued Bobridge’s prior good character needed to be “tempered” due to his admission he was using drugs while competing professionally.
He added the “drug dealing enterprise” between Bobridge and
McGregor was only “in its infancy”, and “clearly intended to be an ongoing business”.
“And but for the, would you say, incompetency of Mr McGregor, being the street level dealer, that Mr Bobridge’s drug dealing business would have undoubtedly continued into the future and more drugs would have been made available to  the market,” Mr Grinceri said.

Cycling track likely to be renamed

Barossa Council will consider renaming the Jack Bobridge Track in light of the cyclist’s conviction last week.
Councillors will decide at a meeting on July 16 whether to change the name of the cycling and walking path – which extends from Tanunda to Gawler – to the Barossa Trail.
Barossa mayor Bim Lange said renaming would “provide an opportunity to rebrand and ensure alignment with Brand Barossa”.