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
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 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
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 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.
