Jayco-AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco team owner and long-time cycling philanthropist Gerry Ryan has been inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for his impact and philanthropy to sport.
Ryan was named as a 2024 inductee alongside seven other new Hall of Fame members including surfing champion Mick Fanning, Olympic hurdler Sally Pearson, motorsport driver Mark Skaife.
As a General Member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, Ryan joins an exclusive roll of honour that includes many of Australia’s biggest sporting names, such as Donald Bradman, Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman and Rod Laver. The 2024 inductees will be honoured at a Gala Dinner, which returns from a four-year hiatus, in Melbourne, on November 18.
73-year-old Ryan is already a member of AusCycling’s Hall of Fame and is a former president of Cycling Australia. Cycling in Australia would not be the same and not as globally successful without Ryan’s continued financial support and business acumen. He was listed 199th in the 2023 list of the 200 richest people in Australia, with a net worth reportedly A$693 million ($460 million).
Ryan supported Kathy Watt’s quest for Olympic gold in 1992, then founded and funded the Jayco Cycling Team and helped the next generation of Australian cyclists through the Victorian Institute of Sport and Australian Institute of Sport programmes.
Ryan has owned and often funded the GreenEdge Cycling Team for more than a decade, which is currently known as the men’s Jayco AlUla team and the women’s Liv AlUla Jayco team since 2012. Both compete successfully at WorldTour level.
Other sports to benefit from his investment include basketball, horse racing, Australian rules football and rugby league. Most recently, Ryan has backed the new ProVelo Super League Australian race series that will launch in early 2025. He often travels to Europe to see his team in action at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. Ryan’s business interests include the caravan company Jayco Australia, the theatrical company Global Creatures, and ownership of wineries and resorts.
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“I’m still coming to terms with being selected,” Ryan said modestly.
“You never dream of receiving such an honour but I’m so pleased, not just for me but for the people who have been around me to help me achieve this. My family, friends and work colleagues.
“I’m certainly going to be very proud to be in that room and looking around at the people who are also accepting awards. You have a vision, you have a dream, but certainly I have surpassed what I believed growing up as a boy that I would ever achieve.”
