Peter Keen (cyclist)

Peter Keen CBE, is a former cyclist, coach, and now performance director.

In 1980 he won the schoolboy 10-mile time-trial championships. That led selection by the British Cycling Federation for the national track squad. Keen completed a sports studies degree at University College Chichester and began studying human performance from an academic perspective and devised a research programme on the physical limitations to pursuit racing. He wrote to British Cycling asking if they wanted to get involved in the trials. They agreed to send some junior riders. Simultaneously, Keen was working as a senior lecturer in exercise physiology at University College Chichester and the University of Brighton.

He was UK national track cycling coach from 1989-1992 and was Chris Boardman’s coach when he became Olympic champion in the individual pursuit at the 1992 Summer Olympics, Britain’s first Olympic gold medal in cycling for 72 years. Keen continued to work with Boardman as he started his professional career on to the continent where Boardman would win the prologue at the Tour de France three times and broke The World Hour Record three times.

From 1997 to 2004 Keen was the elite performance director of British Cycling. He was performance director for UK Sport prior to the 2012 London Olympics. At UK Sport as Performance Director Keen was responsible for developing and implementing ‘Mission 2012’ a strategic performance management system and reporting process for Olympic and Paralympic sports in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. ‘Mission 2012’ was adopted in preparation for Sochi 2014 and the Rio Olympics in 2016. In June 2012, Keen became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Keen worked as an interim performance director at the Lawn Tennis Association, having been appointed in October 2015 and remaining in post for the duration of his 12-month contract.

From 2013 has been director of sport advancement at Loughborough University.