Rebecca Romero
MBE

Romero at the World Championships in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Rebecca Jayne Romero
Born	(1980-01-24)24 January 1980 (age 46) 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 Representing Great Britain Women'srowing Olympic Games 2004 Athens Quadruple sculls World Championships 2005 Gifu Quadruple sculls Women'strack cycling Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Individual pursuit World Championships 2008 Manchester Individual pursuit 2008 Manchester Team pursuit 2007 Palma de Mallorca Individual pursuit

Rebecca Jayne Romero, (born 24 January 1980) is anEnglish sportswoman, a former world champion andOlympic Games silver medallist inrowing, and a former world and Olympic champion intrack cycling.^[2]

Romero was born inCarshalton,^[1]London, to an English mother and Spanish father.^[3] She was brought up inWallington, London where she attendedWallington High School for Girls. Romero took up rowing at the age of 17 when she joinedKingston Rowing Club. A coach at the club helped fund her ambitions.^[4]

In her early career, Romero finished fifth in thequadruple sculls at both the2001^[5] and2002 World Rowing Championships.^[6] At the2003 World Rowing Championships inMilan, Romero andDebbie Flood finished fourth in thedouble sculls.^[7] In June 2004, Romero,Frances Houghton,Alison Mowbray and Flood won the World Cup event inLucerne.^[8] The same four then won the Princess Grace Trophy at theHenley Royal Regatta, as well as taking the overall World Cup series title.^[9] Romero then won a silver medal at the2004 Summer Olympics in thequadruple sculls again competing with Mowbray, Houghton and Flood. The quartet finished behind Germany who were undefeated in the event since 1988.^[10] The following year, she was a member of the British crew that won the2005 World Rowing Championships in the quad sculls. Romero, Houghton,Sarah Winckless andKatherine Grainger finished 0.34 seconds ahead of second-placed Germany in the championships held in Japan.^[11] Suffering from a persistent back injury, Romero retired from rowing in 2006.^[12]

Romero became aracing cyclist afterBritish Cycling contacted her in April 2006 to see if she was interested in giving the sport a try.^[13] In September that year, she won theBritish National Time Trial Championships after finishing 15 seconds ahead of second-placedWendy Houvenaghel.^[14] The following month, Romero was beaten by Houvenaghel to thenational 3 km individual pursuit title.^[15] In December 2006, Romero won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at theTrack World Cup event inMoscow – her international cycling debut – losing out to Houvenaghel.^[16] She then won another silver medal behind Houvenaghel at a subsequent event of the competition inManchester.^[17]

Romero won her firstTrack Cycling World Championships medal in March 2007 with silver in the3 km individual pursuit. She was defeated by the American riderSarah Hammer in the final who finished over three seconds ahead of her.^[18] Also that year, Romero became the national champion in theindividual pursuit.^[19] In the2007-08 World Cup, Romero won a gold medal in the indivdual pursuit at the event inCopenhagen. It was her first World Cup victory and she defeatedVilija Sereikaitė in the gold-medal race.^[20]

The following year, at the2008 Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, she won the individual pursuit, overcoming Hammer in the final. Her success meant that she had become a world champion in two different sports across a three-year period.^[13] Later in the competition, Romero, riding with Houvenaghel andJoanna Rowsell, also triumphed in the team pursuit. The trio defeated Ukraine in the final by over seven seconds.^[21]

In 2008, she became the first ever British woman to compete in two different sports at theSummer Olympics when she rode in theindividual pursuit inBeijing. In winning the gold medal, she also became only the second woman of any country, after swimmer andhandball playerRoswitha Krause of East Germany, to win a Summer Olympics medalin two different sports.^[22] She won the gold medal after defeating her fellow British rider Houvenaghel in the final with an advantage of over two seconds.^[23] She also finished 11th in thepoints race.^[24]

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.^[25] It was announced in December 2009 that the event was to be dropped, meaning Romero was unable to defend her title at the2012 Summer Olympics in London. 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.^[26]

In August 2009 she attempted the 874-mile non-stop mixedtandem bicycle record attempt fromLand's End toJohn O'Groats with rowerJames Cracknell but had to abandon her attempt at more than half way due to a knee injury.^[27]

She raced in the British Time Trial Championships in September 2011 finishing 4th overall.^[28] In October 2011, Romero announced that she was withdrawing fromBritish Cycling's Olympic Programme and that she would not be competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[29] She subsequently confirmed that she would compete in theIronman 70.3triathlon inMallorca and theIronman UK event inBolton in 2012,^[30] and the2012 Ironman World Championship.^[31]

Romero appeared nude on her bicycle in an advert forPowerade in the run up to the2008 Summer Olympics.^[32]

In January 2013, Romero launchedRomero Performance, a business offering sports performance consultancy.^[33]

Romero was a nominee for the2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.^[34] She was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the2009 New Year Honours.^[35] In 2023, she was inducted into theBritish Cycling Hall of Fame.^[36]

 United Kingdom 4th British National Time Trial Championships (Cycling)2011

• Leander Club (member)
• List of athletes who competed in multiple sports at the Summer Olympic games
• List of multi-sport athletes
• List of multi-sport champions
• List of multiple Olympic medalists

• Rebecca Romero atOlympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Official website
• Profile onBritish Cycling

• English people of Spanish descent
• Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• English female rowers
• English Olympic competitors
• Olympic cyclists for Great Britain
• Olympic rowers for Great Britain
• Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
• Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain
• Rowers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• 1980 births
• Living people
• Members of the Order of the British Empire
• Olympic gold medalists in cycling
• Olympic medalists in rowing
• Alumni of the University of Surrey
• People educated at Wallington High School for Girls
• Alumni of St Mary's University, Twickenham
• English female cyclists
• British female cyclists
• People from Carshalton
• Cyclists from the London Borough of Sutton
• UCI Track Cycling World Champions (women)
• Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Members of Leander Club
• Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain
• English track cyclists
• British track cyclists
• Alumni of Richmond upon Thames College
• 21st-century English sportswomen

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