Draft:Mehdi Kordi

Mehdi Kordi (born 05 December 1984) is a sports scientist and coach, currently Head Coach at the Royal Dutch Cycling Union (KNWU). Prior to his role at KNWU, he was a Coach and Scientist at British Cycling and The KGF / HUUB Wattbike Test Team.

Early Life
Kordi was born in Loughborough to Iranian parents. He attended the University of Manchester to study Biomedical Science in 2007. He then subsequently completed an MSc in Space Physiology & Health at King's College, London in 2011 and finally on to Northumbria University in collaboration with The UK Sports Institute to study a PhD in Sport and Exercise Science, graduating in 2019.

Before undertaking his PhD, Kordi worked as a Medical Researcher at The European Astronaut Centre (part of the European Space Agency in Cologne, Germany).

Royal Dutch Cycling Union (KNWU)
As Head Coach at KNWU, Kordi has overseen Olympic, UCI Track World Championship and UEC European Track Championship track successes, including the 2023 1KM Time Trial, Madison, Sprint and Team Sprint. He coached Shanne Braspennix to 2020 Olympic Gold in the Keirin and led the Women's team to European Championships Team sprint gold in 2021, breaking a world record in the process.

Working with the KNWU Endurance Team between 2021 and 2022, he coached Yoeri Havik to his madien World Title in the points race. Kordi rejoined the Sprint Team at the end of 2022 to lead them in regaining the Team Sprint World Championship title in 2023 after losing it to Australia in 2022.

Kordi played a key role coaching Dutch track cyclist Jeffrey Hoogland's successful1km time trial world record attempt in October 2023, breaking the longest standing record in track cycling.

British Cycling
Kordi was Para-Cycling Coach at British Cycling between 2017 and 2018, leading both the male and female sprint tandems to four gold medals at the Para-Cycling World Championships in 2018. During his tenure, the team broke four World Records including the men's Tandem 1km time trial and 200m time trial, and women's Tandem 1km and 200m time trials.

KGF/HUUB Wattbike Test Team
Kordi coached the HUUB Wattbike Test Team (formerly Team KGF) between 2017 and 2019. He aided their 2018 team pursuit gold at the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Minsk and London World Cups in 2018.

During his time with this team, Kordi is credited with breaking conventional team pursuit tactics, termed the 'Mehdi Method' by the team, which was implemented successfully for the team's second World Cup win. It involved a change to the orthodox method of the front rider in the pursuit dropping to the fourth and last position in the team following the opening turn. Instead, the front rider would drop into third position, allowing the fourth rider to better conserve energy for later in the race when needed.

Rowing
In 2012, Kordi was part of the Molesey Boat Club crew that won the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.