With her family name already etched in Commonwealth Games history, Kiwi cyclist Sami Donnelly is ready to write her own chapter when she arrives in Glasgow.
The 24-year-old track cyclist from Christchurch is part of the New Zealand cycling team who touch down in the Scottish city in time for the start of the Commonwealth Games having spent the past week in Bromont, Canada, fine tuning their preparations.
She arrives with a special story already in the bag – her dad winning gold on the Games cycling stage 36 years earlier.
But this time, the Commonwealth Games are about Sami Donnelly – with very proud parents, Nigel and Lyndal, in the stands to watch her ride in three events.
She will be on the start line for the women’s team pursuit, suiting up alongside Paris Olympic silver medallists Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman, with recent World Cup medallist Prudence Fowler.
Donnelly will also compete in the scratch and elimination races at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome – a venue which has garnered plenty of success for Kiwis with 11 medals earned at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Adding to that tally would be a full-circle moment for the young Kiwi rider and her family.
Sami’s dad, Nigel Donnelly, became part of New Zealand cycling folklore at the 1990 Games in Auckland, winning gold in the men’s team pursuit with Gary Anderson, Glenn McLeay and Stu Williams.
The team weren’t expected to trouble the might of Australia and endured some bold pre-race predictions from their trans-Tasman rivals with New Zealand qualifying second – just under a second slower. But it was to be the Kiwis’ race at the Manukau Stadium with the hosts claiming a famous gold, almost three seconds faster than the Aussies.
Incidentally, one of Sami Donnelly’s teammates in Glasgow, Ellesse Andrews, shares a similar story. Her dad, Jon, won two bronze medals at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in the kilo and the sprint.
Nigel Donnelly’s story has always been close to his daughter’s heart. When family friends came around in her younger years, the tape of the famed race would be watched again.
“I remember taking his Commonwealth Games medal to school and it’s always a conversation that still comes up. I’m pretty proud of him,” Sami Donnelly says.
“He’s a man of few words but he’s always there with a supportive hand on my back when I need it.”
Her dad also raced at two Olympic Games, as a young 20-year-old in the 4000m team pursuit in 1988, where they finished 14th, and four years later in Barcelona in the same event where they were taken out in the quarterfinal.
“He’s someone who I’ve looked up to for a long time.”
The Commonwealth Games have been on her radar for some time – the family history in the event planting the seed early with the goal of representing her country on the world stage.
“I never really imagined I’d have a normal job,” she says with a laugh. “But I probably didn’t imagine I’d be travelling the world like I am now and riding a bike for my country.”
Fulfilling that Games’ dream however has had its moments of angst for Donnelly. First in 2023, when Australia pulled out of hosting the sporting event due to escalating costs.
“When it became apparent there might not be a Games, I felt pretty sad. It’s an event we’ve talked about often as a family and Dad’s talked about how special the Commonwealth Games are, so I was really glad when it got the green light for Glasgow,” she says.
“Dad has such fond memories of the Commonwealth Games, and I guess I’d like to make a few of my own.”
The second moment of uncertainty was more recently when Donnelly, riding for her Whoosh–NZ Cycling road team at the Tour of America’s Dairylands in the United States crashed heavily last month.
It sent a momentary shiver down her spine as her thoughts turned to the Commonwealth Games and what a concussion could mean.
“It happened during a counterattack and it was just an overlapping of wheels,” she says. “I came down hard on my head and shoulder. I pulled into the mechanics, took my helmet off and the Commissaire saw the big bruise on my forehead and said I wouldn’t be getting back on the bike that day.
“Fortunately it wasn’t too bad, and we followed the concussion protocols and precautions and played it safe with the Games coming up.”
Selection in the New Zealand team was confirmed in June in what was a special moment for the Donnelly family. Sami sat down to post on social media marking the father-daughter moment.
“Dad told me it wasn’t about him but about me and me creating my own story,” she says.
So she captured the words which have been turning her wheels since she started taking cycling seriously as a student at Burnside High School in Christchurch.
‘Chasing my own chapter in a story that started long before me,’ she wrote alongside images of her dad’s winning feats and her own success.
It seemed inevitable Donnelly would end up on two wheels but as a youngster she never felt the pressure to hop into the saddle. She played all the sports available to her and on a bike, she dabbled in mountain biking and BMX.
But it wasn’t until she saw her older brother, Felix, on the track that she was tempted to give the velodrome a shot.
“It really has just felt right since I first got on that bike.”
Helped by a “supportive Canterbury track scene” and a family who “knew” cycling, Donnelly felt wrapped in knowledge and encouragement – motivated to keep getting better every time she clicked her shoes in to the pedals.
In 2017 she won the national U19 road championships, and the following year won team pursuit silver at the UCI junior track world championships while picking up a further three medals at the Oceania track championships.
Joining the international track squad in 2022, she was part of the winning team pursuit at the Nations Cup in Adelaide and Hong Kong in 2024. She was also a reserve for the New Zealand team at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
This year, Donnelly claimed her first individual World Cup medal, winning bronze in Malaysia in the omnium, while also being part of the quartet that won the team pursuit World Cup finals in Hong Kong and Malaysia – all combining to make her a cyclist to watch in Glasgow.
There have been moments, though, when she felt the handlebars slipping through her fingers in 2021 when she contemplated giving the sport away.
“I was racing for a small Belgian team which turned into a terrible experience. I got a concussion and with Covid happening, I had to stick it out on my own,” she says.
“It was hard and when I was eventually able to return home, I had to go through MIQ and I didn’t enjoy it one bit.”
She had been hit by a car and left with a concussion, a broken bike – and spirit. “I was ready to chuck it all in to be honest.”
Her parents were at home ready to pick up the pieces.
“Dad had rebuilt my old bike and Mum asked if I could just take it out for a ride after he’d spent three weekends putting it back together. It was in that moment that I realised that this was still what I wanted,” Sami says.
The following year she made the elite leagues and was forced to make another mindset shift against the fierce competition.
“It was a real adjustment. Training hard all summer and then coming out and getting whipped. I think once I got that success at Oceanias [track championships], I knew I could do this.”
Chasing her cycling dreams around the world is something she still has to pinch herself about although she admits living out of a suitcase has, at times, become tiresome.
“I can pack down my bike pretty quick but I’m still getting used to having my life in a suitcase. I’m looking forward to some time at home,” she says.
Until then, her focus remains Glasgow and the thrill of the race – against her competitors and the clock. Donnelly says the processes they follow in the track disciplines is something that keeps her coming back for more.
“In the team pursuit you’ve got your individual roles, but it’s about how fast can we go together out there. It’s the speeds you’ve got to go, the skin suits, the aerodynamics and it’s a world of pain for four minutes to go as fast as you can. But that’s what makes it exciting,” Sami says.
“To get everyone at their best on the same day is quite an achievement, but to look up at the lap splits or that feeling when you cross the line – it’s hard to explain. And it never gets easier – it just gets faster. You train so hard but know that the ceiling just gets higher.”
That’s what Donnelly finds so satisfying about track cycling – the chase for the faster time. “If there was a limit, I don’t think it would be as exciting.”
She’s also grateful to have an “awesome bunch” of cyclists who she lines up with on the steep boards of the velodrome and the support staff pushing her to get better with each outing.
“I’ve looked up to someone like Bryony Botha throughout my career and now I’m racing and rooming with her. I’m surrounded by people who are all wanting to get the best out of each other and that’s the motivation to do well together,” Sami says.
Donnelly also saves a special thanks to her parents and family as her pen poises over the pages of a new chapter, her chapter, of a two-wheeled narrative that is only building in momentum.
“They’ve helped get me to this point,” she says quietly. “They’re a huge part of my story.”
