In 1984 Speight qualified for the inaugural Women's Road Race at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Australian cycling officials, however, later reneged by electing not to send a women's team to Los Angeles. Instead, Speight was sent to the Yu King Cup Road Race in China, where she became the first Australian female cyclist to win an international race, beating several of her international opponents who went on to race in the Los Angeles Olympics later that year- the very event in which the Australian Cycling Federation disallowed Speight's entry.
