Consistency key in the pursuit of education for Olympic cyclist

The 26-year-old graduated from Massey in March with a Bachelor of Sports Management, six years after he began his degree.

Regan has been chipping away at his studies, completing two papers a semester by distance while training and racing at two Olympic Games. It was this measured approach that enabled him to complete his degree while being a professional cyclist.

“At High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) I had access to a life advisor who had a lot of expertise with universities. They helped me find my feet when I started studying. As I was only studying two papers a semester my work load wasn’t excessive,” Regan says.

While the academic workload wasn’t overwhelming, Regan says it was still a challenge to find the time and motivation to complete his study around his training.

“The hardest thing was finding the right time to actively study to be able to take it all in. I train most days, therefore coming home and having to hit the books at times was difficult as all I wanted to do was rest and relax.” 

Completing his degree gave Regan the same challenge, and satisfaction, as pursuing his cycling goals.

“I’m not a particularly theoretical person, I enjoy hands-on and practical stuff far more. But I enjoyed the challenge, and the sense of achieving something I really worked hard for. It gave me a real purpose. It’s amazing what you do when you have to do it, I look back now and wonder how I had the time to do it.”

Studying sports management while living the life of an athlete certainly made it easier for Regan to relate to his studies.

“I enjoyed the fact that I was really able to relate what I was learning to day-to-day life within my team and sport,” Regan says.

He was also named the Distance Sportsman of the Year at the Massey Blues Awards in 2020.

After finishing fourth in the team pursuit at both the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Regan has his sights set on the Paris Olympics in 2024.

With the Olympics on his mind and still at a relatively young age for a cyclist, Regan isn’t giving too much consideration yet to life after sport, but he knows having a degree under his belt will help him secure his next career.

“I wanted to show my potential employer that I can stick out a degree, which has equipped me with a number of skills. It also comes back to having something else to focus on and it gave me a real purpose.”