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Rebecca Romero

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Rebecca Romero
MBE
At the World Championships, 2008
Personal information
Full nameRebecca Romero
Born (1980-01-24) 24 January 1980 (age 44)
Carshalton, United Kingdom
Height1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight73 kg (161 lb)[1]
Team information
DisciplineTrack & Road
RoleRider
Rider typeTT / Pursuit
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Women's rowing
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Quadruple sculls
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2005 Gifu Quadruple sculls
Women's track cycling
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing Individual pursuit
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2008 Manchester Individual pursuit
Gold medal – first place 2008 Manchester Team pursuit
Silver medal – second place 2007 Palma de Mallorca Individual pursuit

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]

Early life and education

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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]

Rowing

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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]

Cycling

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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.

Beijing Olympics

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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]

Post-Beijing

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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]

Achievements

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Rowing

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Olympic Games
2004 – Silver, Quadruple sculls (with Frances Houghton, Debbie Flood, Alison Mowbray)
World Championships
2001 – 5th, Quadruple sculls
2002 – 5th, Quadruple sculls
2003 – 4th, Double sculls
2005 – Gold, Quadruple sculls (with Katherine Grainger, Frances Houghton, Sarah Winkless)
U23 World Championships
1999 – 4th, Single sculls
2000 – Gold, Coxless pairs

Cycling

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 United Kingdom Time Trial Champion (Cycling) 2006
UCI Track World Cups: 2 Silver Medals (Moscow & Manchester)
2007 World Championships – Silver, 3 km Pursuit
 United Kingdom National 3 km Pursuit Champion (Cycling) 2007
2007–08 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics: Gold individual pursuit Copenhagen
2008 World Championships – Gold, 3 km Pursuit
2008 World Championships – Gold, Team Pursuit
2008 Summer Olympics Gold, Individual Pursuit
 United Kingdom 4th British National Time Trial Championships (Cycling) 2011

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Athlete Biography – ROMERO Rebecca". Beijing Olympics official website. Archived from the original on 25 August 2008.
  2. ^ Profile on British Olympic Association's website
  3. ^ Romero beats GB team-mate to gold BBC News Sunday, 17 August 2008 10:22 UK
  4. ^ "Rebecca Romero ' . . . . live your dream'". Wallington High School for Girls. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008.
  5. ^ "Rebecca Romero: fame and fortune". London: Telegraph.co.uk. 28 May 2008. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  6. ^ "Champion Romero eyes Olympic gold". BBC Sport. 28 March 2008.
  7. ^ "Pursuit quartet and Hoy take gold". BBC Sport. 30 March 2007.
  8. ^ Gallagher, Brendan (17 August 2008). "Rebecca Romero makes British Olympic history with gold in velodrome". London: Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 August 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  9. ^ Kelland, Kate (5 August 2008). "British athletes bare all for advertising campaign". Reuters.
  10. ^ "No. 58929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 21.
  11. ^ "Romero conspicuous by her absence". BBC Sport. 21 October 2009.
  12. ^ "Rebecca Romero attacks 'ludicrous' Olympic track cycling changes". The Guardian. London. 28 October 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  13. ^ Hancock, Roland (4 August 2009). "James Cracknell on Romero's heartbreak". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 7 August 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  14. ^ "Cycling Time Trials". Archived from the original on 28 March 2012.
  15. ^ Press Association (10 October 2011). "Cycling: Romero will not compete at London 2012 Games". The Independent. 13 July 2012
  16. ^ "Rebecca Romero Exclusive Interview". Triradar.com. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  17. ^ "Britain's Leanda Cave wins Ironman World Championship". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  18. ^ "Romero Performance Sports Consultancy and Retul Bike Fit Centre". Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  19. ^ Romero, Rebecca (5 December 2012). "Romero Performance Opens". rebeccaromero.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
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