The 29-year-old enlisted Tasmanian artist Cam Plapp to design and paint some custom race shoes especially for her Paris campaign, which pay tribute to Baker’s beloved dad Patrick – her biggest supporter – who died of a heart attack in 2015 at the age of 44.

The shoes feature a red helicopter on one side – “Dad got his pilot’s licence before he passed away and that was a huge part of who he was’’ Baker explains – and they also feature the number 22 – a number that Baker often sees pop up in daily life, and that she and her family associate with her dad, who died on May 22.

The shoes also feature two antlers – which each have 11 spurs – adding up to 22. And they also represent 11:11, which is considered by many as a spiritual “angel number”, which Baker also has tattooed on her body.

And of course there’s some green and gold, to represent the colours of Australia, the nation Baker proudly represents.

It’s not the first time Launceston-born Baker has worn custom shoes – she unveiled a pair of Tasmanian-themed shoes at the start of 2023, also painted by Plapp, which featured a Tasmanian Tiger on one side and the Tasmanian blue gum – Tasmania’s official emblem – on the other.

“I wore them in the peloton and I got such a huge response,’’ Baker recalls.

“I got so many comments, people saying ‘I love your shoes’ and people asking me about the thylacine. It was surprising how many people didn’t know anything about the Tassie tiger – they were saying ‘What is that?’ And ‘Is that a Tasmanian Devil?’.’’

But with her focus now on track racing – she’s set to compete in the women’s omnium, Madison and team pursuit events in Paris as one of 19 track and road cyclists selected in the Australian team – Baker wanted similar custom footwear suitable for what will be her third – and possibly final – Olympics.

She’s had the shoes for about a year, and has been patiently waiting to wear them.

“They’re for my Dad,’’ Baker says of the shoes, adding that she always feels close to her dad when she is riding.

“He’s always on my mind, more so around these big events, I just seem to think of him a bit more. Dad was someone who always trained with me and was always someone who believed in me, more than I believed in myself at times, so I use that as motivation and think ‘what would my dad say in this moment?’

“You might not be able to see (the painted shoes) on the velodrome because I’ll be wearing shoe covers, but I’ll know they’re there.’’

Baker has high hopes for Paris, after her previous two Olympic Games didn’t go the way she’d hoped.

Baker made her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016, alongside Melissa Hoskins, Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff and fellow Tasmanian Amy Cure in the team pursuit.

The Aussie women were hot favourites to dominate the podium, after finishing 2015 as the world champions and world record holders, but a freak crash during training left four of the team injured, two days out from competition.

Hoskins was taken to hospital by ambulance, while Ankudinoff suffered a subluxation of the AC joint in her shoulder, and Baker and Cure had severe bruising and track burns. Edmondson was the only team member who managed to escape unscathed.

“The crash definitely did impact our performance,” Baker revealed at the time.

“After the crash, we had girls on crutches being carried and physically placed onto their bikes to compete.

“It showed a lot of courage to be able to do that because there were so many injuries.”

Despite their disadvantage, the team put in a gallant effort, but the effects of their injuries sent the gold medal favourites to fifth place.

Coming home and dealing with the grief of losing her dad – who had died suddenly less than a year earlier – along with having her Olympic aspirations come crashing down, was difficult.

“Coming home from Rio was very tough,’’ Baker said in an interview in 2020, leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.

“I struggled a lot because I’d lost my dad the year prior and didn’t have time to properly process that because everything (being selected for Rio Olympics) happened so fast.

“I achieved my dream of going to an Olympics, then for the crash to have happened, and for it to have pretty much been my fault for hitting the wheel in front of me, was a lot to deal with.

“It was overwhelming and took me about a year to get over it. It wasn’t until the following year when I missed out on the world championships that I said to myself, ‘come on Georgia, you need to pull yourself together, there’s another Olympics in three years’.

“Missing out on that world championships team was the turning point for me, I hated it and that’s when Tokyo 2020 became the focus.”

But the road to Tokyo wasn’t a smooth one.

Baker was racing overseas in 2017 when her heart rate suddenly spiked and she thought she was having a heart attack. Given the loss of her dad only two years earlier, it was something Baker – and medical professionals – took seriously.

After a series of tests, Baker was diagnosed with a hereditary condition – supraventricular tachycardia – an abnormally fast rhythm caused by an overactive nerve in the heart.

Although not life-threatening, Baker underwent surgery in an effort to prolong her cycling career.

She was initially told she wouldn’t be able to ride beyond 2020, which brought a sense of urgency, as she feared Tokyo Olympics would be her last.

Two weeks after surgery, Baker was back at training and less than a year later she won gold in the team pursuit at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Baker underwent further medical tests and the results were more positive, with specialists happy for Baker to continue to ride, provided she has yearly medical checks.

Baker formed part of Australia’s women’s team pursuit which finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.

She had more success at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, picking up a trio of gold medals in the road race, points race and team pursuit.

But it’s Olympic gold that still eludes her.

Being older, wiser and more experienced, Baker hopes Paris is her time to shine.

“This time I feel like I’ve learnt, I feel like in my head it’s third time’s a charm,’’ she says, when TasWeekend speaks to her a few days before her arrival in Paris.

“I feel like I’ve learnt so much from the first two Olympic Games – things didn’t go our way in Rio, and again in Tokyo we had some disappointment.

“This time also I’m a lot older and I just seem to be more calm.

“I’m a more mature athlete, I now know what works for me and I just feel a lot more relaxed going into this Olympics, and that’s what I need.

“We’re not in Paris yet, and when we get there, there will be nervous energy but it’s not detrimental, it’s just exciting, I think.’’

Having had less than ideal outcomes at the last two Olympics helped her put things into perspective.

“I feel like I’ve learnt from the last two, it’s not the be all and end all,’’ Baker says.

“Okay, it is the Olympics and it’s huge and special and everything I’ve been training for in my career. But at the end of the day it’s not going to define me as a person.

“I’ll just do the best that I can and I can’t be disappointed either way. It’s definitely something you learn, that it doesn’t define you.

“I race my bike for myself, for my teammates and for my family. I know I’ve been through some pretty tough times, losing dad, and so has my family. So I always think ‘this bike race isn’t going to hurt more than that’. And it always puts things into perspective when things don’t go your way.’’

Baker will turn 30 in September, which makes her somewhat of a veteran of the Australian cycling squad.

“It’s so strange, I was actually just thinking about it and yes, I am one of the oldest here within the women’s group,’’ she says.

“It’s so strange to me because I remember being the young one in Rio and looking up to the older girls.

“It’s just so different (coming into Paris). For one, it’s like ‘Wow, time flies’. And ‘Wow, I am a leader of this team now’. And I think the way I like to lead is making sure everyone feels equal … there was a bit more hierarchy in the past … (but) I try and create an environment where everyone feels like they have a say.

“I don’t really feel like a veteran. I do know that I have a lot of experience so I try and pass that on to the newbies at their first Olympics, I try and pass on all my knowledge to them as best I can.’’

Another exciting thing about Paris will be that Baker’s mum Dearne, her younger sister Phoebe, and Phoebe’s partner will travel from Launceston to be there.

When Baker speaks to TasWeekend she’s in Portugal – for a pre-Olympic training camp – where it’s “a little fresh” at 8.30am but the temperature is headed for a top of 28C – a far cry from the chilly single-digit winter temperatures in her home state of Tasmania.

While she travels a lot to race, Baker is typically based in Spain for eight months of the year.

Her family travels regularly to see her race and have supported her at the Olympics in the past – her mum, sister and grandparents were in Rio, although couldn’t attend Tokyo due to Covid – but they still spend more time apart than Baker would like.

Baker usually only gets a chance to return home to Tasmania for a few months over summer each year.

“The seasons are quite long,’’ she explains of cycling.

“I don’t finish usually until the end of October and then afterwards I head back to Australia for a bit in the off season and the season starts again in January (with events in Australia). So everything moves quite fast.’’

So it’s hardly surprising that Baker is making the most of having her family at the Olympics, with a European holiday planned together once formalities are over, including some time in Nice.

But first she’s got some important Olympic business to take care of.

Baker says knowing her family will be in the crowd when she competes in Paris, gives her a boost on the track.

“It makes such a difference, especially for the Olympics, my teammates will have family there as well,’’ she says.

“Because I live overseas for eight months of the year I don’t see my family very often.

“And I will probably get to see them once before I race, or maybe not even that, I might not see them until afterwards. So if I see them give me a wave, that’s just really exciting, it’s really special when you know how much they’ve helped your career along the way. Whether it’s a good or bad result it’s comforting to have them in the crowd.’’

Baker also gets plenty of Tassie support on social media, with messages coming from all parts of her much-loved home state.

The Tasmanian Athlete of the Year for 2022, who bought a house in Launceston about 18 months ago, grew up in the northern Tassie town of Perth.

“There’s a lot of support from back home,’’ she says.

“From (connections made at) primary school, from the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, even from the local butcher in Perth – there are lots of really special connections I’ve had over the years. That’s one thing I suppose that is sad about sport – you have to live overseas for the sport – because I really do miss Tasmania.

“Tassie and the community have always been around me,’’ she adds, reflecting on her time as a junior cyclist when the community helped raise funds for her to compete in her first world championship event.

“It’s nice to know back home there are a lot of people behind me.’’

Baker has enjoyed having a fellow Tasmanian – TIS head coach Matthew Gilmore – in Europe, working with the Australian cycling team in the lead-up to the Olympics.

“I feel like I’m just a huge advocate for Tassie,” Baker says.

“I’m very proud of Tasmania, I like to be a big advocate for Tassie whenever anyone asks where I’m from.’’

Baker is one of more than a dozen Tasmanians representing the state on the world stage at this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Tasmanian cohort of the Australian team includes five-time Olympian Eddie Ockenden and fellow hockey stars Josh Beltz and Maddi Brooks; Jacob Despard and Stewart McSweyn (athletics); Ariarne Titmus and Max Giuliani (swimming); and Sarah Hawe and Alexandra Viney (rowing). JackJumpers stars Jack McVeigh and Will Magnay form part of the Boomers basketball team, while Alanna Smith will play for the Opals.

Growing up in Tasmania, Baker was always destined to be a sporting success – the all-round athlete achieved a black belt in taekwondo at age nine and also competed in swimming, netball and triathlon.

Her sporting prowess was recognised at a TIS talent identification session at school, and that launched her cycling career.

She was soon crowned junior world champion and set herself the goal of becoming an Olympian.

“I love sport in general, I think that’s why as a kid I played so many sports, I tried anything,’’ Baker says.

“And I kind of found my niche, something clicked with cycling, and I thought ‘yep, this is what I’m going to do’.

She still remembers coming third, in a scratch race in the U17 nationals, and crying tears of joy for what she had achieved.

“I cried, I was so happy,’’ she recalls.

“The sport has definitely changed over the years, but I still have that same passion I had for it when I first started, when I first tried track in Launceston and had ridden on the velodrome.

“As soon as that (feeling) goes away I’ll know I’ve probably had enough, and I’ll move onto something else in life and start a different chapter, but definitely, for me, I’m still passionate.’’

Baker enjoys the challenges that come with each of the different events she’ll be competing in while in Paris.

When it comes to the omnium – a four-race track cycling event – Baker says she loves the personal challenge of competing as an individual, but it’s actually the team events that bring her the most joy.

In the Madison women’s event – where teams of two take to the track in a mass rolling start and each team aims to complete more laps than other teams over a 20-lap (30km) race, with riders from each duo swapping in and out of the race in a tag-team style handover – she likes the combination of skill, tactics and teamwork that is required.

“I’m just so passionate about it,’’ she says of the Madison.

“It is such a cool event. It’s you and another person, you and your partner, and you need to make sure you’re on the same wavelength and thinking in the same way. The event is not just about physical capacity, it’s an event where you really have to think tactically and strategically as well, there’s a lot of skill involved and a lot happening at the same time.’’

She’ll also be competing in the team pursuit with other members of the Australian women’s track cycling team, which includes Alexandra Manly, Chloe Moran, Kristina Clonan, Maeve Plouffe and Sophie Edwards.

“I really love the team pursuit because it involves the whole women’s group, we literally push each other so hard and the fastest team wins,’’ Baker says.

“It seems like a basic event but there’s so much to it, you want to make sure you’re looking after the whole team. And it’s such a nice feeling to be able to celebrate with the whole group, I like that team side of it. I like events where I can share the success or outcome with other people.’’

Baker is well aware of the magnitude of competing at her third Olympics but says she has learnt a few tricks over the years for keeping calm.

“It’s a tricky one,’’ she says.

“You just want to just approach it like any other event, but it’s a hard thing to do when you know all too well that it’s not just any other event.

“It’s a different vibe … when you walk into a stadium or velodrome you know it does feel different. So it’s really important to stick to basics and know your processes. My coach actually said something which I thought was really cool. You don’t have to be extraordinary on this extraordinary day. You’re just doing what you do every day, but on an extraordinary day. So it’s just about sticking to what you know and not changing everything.’’

Baker is unsure if Paris will be her last Olympics. And while she’s hopeful of winning gold – third time lucky – Baker says she’s ultimately happy enjoying the sport she loves, while continuing to push herself and improve.

“I’m never one to say this will be my last Olympics – it probably will be, I don’t know,’’ she says.

“I just don’t like putting that out there to the world. I still really enjoy riding my bike, I’m still having fun and I don’t want to put anything on it. To be able to have the choice to stop cycling when I want to be able to stop cycling, that’s a huge honour and a privilege as an athlete. At the moment I’m not thinking too far ahead.’’•

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games run until Sunday August 11. Georgia Baker will compete in the women’s omnium, Madison and team pursuit events – see the full schedule at olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule/australia