 At the World Championships, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Rebecca Romero | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 January 1980 Carshalton, United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 73 kg (161 lb) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Track & Road | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rider type | TT / Pursuit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Rebecca Jayne Romero, MBE (born 24 January 1980) is an English sportswoman, a former World Champion and Olympic Games silver medallist at rowing, and a former World champion and an Olympic champion track cyclist. [2] [3]
Romero was born in Carshalton, [1] London, of an English mother and Spanish father, and brought up in Wallington, London where she attended Wallington High School for Girls. [4] Her success in rowing and cycling has meant that she was funded as a full-time athlete since graduating from university. [5]
Romero has won world championships in both cycling and rowing; as a rower, she won a silver medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics in the quadruple sculls, and the following year was part of the British crew that won the 2005 World Championships in the quad sculls. Suffering from a persistent back injury, Romero retired from rowing in 2006. [6]
Romero later took up track cycling, and made rapid progress in her new sport, specialising in track endurance events.
In December 2006, Romero won a silver medal in the pursuit at the UCI Track World Cup event in Moscow – her international cycling debut – losing out to fellow Briton Wendy Houvenaghel.
Romero won her first Cycling World Championships medal in March 2007 with silver in the 3 km pursuit. [7] The following year, at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, held in Manchester, she won the individual and, (with Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell), team pursuit events.
She became the first British woman ever to compete in two different sports at the Olympic Games when she rode in the individual pursuit in Beijing. In winning the gold, she also became only the second woman of any country (after Roswitha Krause of East Germany) to win a medal in two different sports at Summer Games. [8]
Romero appeared nude on her bicycle in an advert for Powerade sports drink in the run up to the 2008 Summer Olympics. [9]
Romero was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. [10]
Romero was expected to return to track cycling in October 2009 but did not return amid speculation that the individual pursuit would be dropped from the Olympic programme. [11] It was announced in December 2009 that the event was to be dropped, meaning Romero was unable to defend her title at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She condemned the decision to drop the event as "ludicrous" but seemed set to make a further change of events by switching to the road time trial. [12]
In August 2009 she attempted the 874-mile non-stop mixed tandem bicycle record attempt from Land's End to John O'Groats with James Cracknell but had to give up at more than half way due to a knee injury. [13]
She planned to race in a time trial at Levens, Cumbria on 13 August 2011. [14] She also raced in the British Time Trial Championships on 4 September 2011 finishing 4th overall.
In October 2011 Romero announced that she was withdrawing from British Cycling's Olympic Programme and that she would not be competing in the 2012 Olympics. [15] She subsequently confirmed that she would compete in the Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Mallorca and the Ironman UK event in Bolton in 2012 [16] and the 2012 Ironman World Championship. [17]
Romero has set up Romero Performance, a sports performance consultancy organisation, which launched in January 2013. [18] [19]
Silver, Quadruple sculls (with Frances Houghton, Debbie Flood, Alison Mowbray)
United Kingdom Time Trial Champion (Cycling) 2006 United Kingdom National 3 km Pursuit Champion (Cycling) 2007 
Gold, Individual Pursuit United Kingdom 4th British National Time Trial Championships (Cycling) 2011 The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track. It is held at over 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) for men and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) for women. The riders start at the same time and set off to complete the race distance in the fastest time. They ride on the pursuit line at the bottom of the track to find the fastest line, with each rider trying to catch the other who started on the other side. If the catch is achieved, the successful pursuer is the winner. However, they can continue the rest of the race distance to set the fastest time in a qualifying race or a record in a final.
Sonia Waddell is a New Zealand athlete. She represented her country at a World Junior Championship in hurdles before becoming a rower, in which sport she was twice an Olympic competitor and where she won silver at a World Rowing Championship. She later competed as a cyclist and won medals at a UCI Para-cycling Track World Championship as a sighted guide.
Dame Katherine Jane Grainger is a Scottish former rower and current Chair of UK Sport. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion for Great Britain. She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020 and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
Frances Houghton MBE is a 5 time Olympic rower (2000–2016), 4 times World Champion and 3 times Olympic Silver medallist.
Wendy Louise Houvenaghel is a Northern Irish former racing cyclist from Upperlands, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, riding on both the road and track, but specialising in the latter. She has represented Great Britain in various World Cycling Championships and in the 2008 Olympic Games, most notably winning the silver medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, and gold in the team pursuit at the 2008, 2009 and 2011 Track World Championships. She has also won many British national titles and represented England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Northern Ireland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Houvenaghel is based in Cornwall, England.
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Alison Shanks is a retired New Zealand professional racing cyclist, specialising in the individual pursuit and team pursuit in track cycling and individual time trial in road bicycle racing. Prior to that she was an Otago Rebels netballer, the sport she played for more than five years before her cycling career.
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Dame Sarah Joanne Storey, is a British cyclist and swimmer, a multiple gold medallist in the Paralympic Games, and six times British (able-bodied) national track champion.
Alison Mowbray is a British former rower who won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics competing in the women's quadruple scull.
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Alexandra Lisney is an Australian rower and cyclist. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Individual Pursuit C4 at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. She represented Australian at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Jaime Nielsen is a New Zealand track and road cyclist, and a former representative rower.
Elinor Jane Barker is a Welsh road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team Uno-X Mobility. Representing Great Britain in international competitions, Barker is an Olympic champion, a three-time World champion and seven-time European champion in the team pursuit, as well as a three-time World champion in the points and scratch races, a World champion in the madison, a two-time European madison champion and one time European elimination race champion. Representing Wales, Barker was also the points race champion at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
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Olivia Loe is a New Zealand representative rower. She is a two-time world champion in the double scull and is the incumbent world champion winning gold at the 2019 World Rowing Championships with Brooke Donoghue. She has been selected in the New Zealand senior squad for the 2020 Summer Olympics but in a surprise move at the final crew selections Loe was replaced in the double scull by Hannah Osborne and selected to race the New Zealand women's quad-scull.
13 July 2012
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 UCI Track Cycling World Champions – Women's team pursuit | |
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Riders in italics took part in the qualifying rounds. | |
