Athlete

Athlete Profile

General:

Height: 6.0”/181cm

Weight: 73kg

Arm span: 75”/191cm

Inside leg: 35”/89cm

VO2 max:  4.45

HR max: 190bpm

Rower: 1998 – 2005

2km ergo PB: 6:40.2

2km 1x PB: 7:32

Discipline: Predominantly sculling, then bow side sweep, can row stroke side too

Favourite position: Stroke

Favourite boat type: Pair (2-)

Favourite training location: Kingston-Upon-Thames

Favourite racing location: Munich/Duisberg

Favourite boat: Empacher and concept blades

Memorable moment: Leading Ekaterina Karston, the multiple World and Olympic Champ to 1500m by a length in my single at the Hazewinkle World Cup in 2002.  Lost by a length!

Best thing about rowing: Side by side racing

Worst thing about rowing: Early morning training

Cyclist: 2006 – 2011

3km IP PB: 3:27.7

3km IP PB avg watts: 425w

10mile TT PB: 20:44min

10mile TT PB avg watts PB: 360w

Discipline: Track Endurance (pursuit) and occasional Road Time Trial

Favourite road training location: Boulder, Colorado

Favourite racing location: Manchester

Favourite track: Palma-de-Mallorca

Favourite bike: Orbea

Memorable moment: Becoming World Champion in the Individual Pursuit in Manchester 2008

Best thing about cycling: Descending fast

Worst thing about cycling: Dangerous dodgy drivers

Biography

Rebecca Romero MBE:

Rebecca Romero is a unique athlete. She is one of only two women to have ever won Olympic medals in two different sports (Rowing 2004 and Cycling 2008), and the only Briton, male or female to do so.

Rebecca started rowing aged 17 at Kingston Rowing Club, and within eight months had progressed from being a novice to being in the GB Juniors Squad. Within three years she had become U23 World Champion.

In 2001 Rebecca gained her first senior vest when she was selected in the quadruple sculls for the World Championships.  They made the final.  2002 and 2003 would also see credible performances in World Championship finals, but it was 2004 that would prove to be Rebecca’s breakthrough year.

After a year of ranking in the top two in every domestic trial and assessment, Rebecca was selected into the quadruple scull again, the top ranked sculling boat. She had a very successful international racing season collecting two gold medals and a silver, and winning the World Cup Series overall.

Her first World medal was then achieved at the Olympic Games in Athens when Rebecca’s crew took a silver medal, just behind the more senior and vastly more experienced German crew.
2005 was the start of a new Olympiad and saw the start of a new campaign for Olympic Gold. Rebecca was part of a newly formed quad combination and for the second year running they won the overall World Cup Series. The final of the World Championships was a re-run of the 2004 Olympic final. Again the two favourites, Great Britain and Germany were coming head to head, but this time however the result was reversed, Great Britain winning the final by 0.3 seconds, and Rebecca collecting her first World Championship title.

However, during the 2005 season Rebecca got injured and during her time out rehabbing from the injury, she decided it was time to start moving onto something new. It was at this point, she had contact with British Cycling, and following a series of tests was told she had the potential to succeed at the highest level in cycling.  In April 2006 Rebecca started the second part of her amazing career training as a cyclist with the aim of participating in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Five months into it Rebecca competed in her first major competition, the British Time Trial Championships. Having only practiced a handful of time trials, she shocked both herself and the cycling world by winning! In her first ever cycling race she had become British Champion!

In December 2006 and now settled into her targeted Olympic discipline of track cycling, Rebecca won a silver medal in the Individual Pursuit at the World Cup in Moscow, her international cycling debut. Rebecca’s rapid rise up the world cycling ranks continued in 2007 when she won her first Cycling World Championship medal with silver in the Individual Pursuit. The following year, at the 2008 World Championships held in Manchester, she won Gold in both the Individual and Team Pursuit events, just two years after she had started cycling!

The season then culminated in the Beijing Olympic Games where Rebecca won gold in the velodrome, becoming Olympic Champion in the Individual Pursuit.  In addition to this she also finished in 11th place in the Points Race, her first ever attempt at competing in that track cycling event!

Rebecca was keen to build on her Beijing Olympic performance and set her sights high, targeting two gold medals at the London Olympics. Unfortunately she was hit with huge disappointment as both the Individual Pursuit and Points Race were cut from the Olympic programme after a radical overhaul of events by the International Cycling Federation.

She was determined to battle on and reinvent herself as a road Time Trial rider, only to be met with more disappointment as more changes were introduced.  This time, changes to the qualification criteria for the road events saw an end to her Time Trial ambitions.  Her final Olympic opportunity meant a return to the track, however after a lengthy period of inconsistency due to the event changes, and after a series of unfortunate setbacks at crucial times, Rebecca made the difficult decision to step down from the Olympic team because she knew she was no longer on a pathway that would see her achieve Olympic success.

Welcoming change and revelling in the opportunity to re-invent herself in a new sporting challenge, Rebecca signed up to do Ironman UK in July.  As a total novice to swimming and running she has set herself probably one of the biggest challenges of her sporting career so far.  In seven months of training she needs to be able to complete a 3.8km open water swim, a 180km bike ride and a marathon run back to back to successfully complete an Ironman.  Just four months into her triathlon preparation Rebecca competed in her first triathlon event, a 70.3 half Ironman event in Mallorca in a time of 5hrs17mins.  With much more training and racing experience to be gained Rebecca is looking forward to making more improvements in the sport.

No longer having the luxury of being a full-time funded athlete, Rebecca is also juggling work commitments, studying for an MSc in Exercise and Nutrition Science and building her future career.  She is close to opening her sports performance centre where she plans to offer high performance coaching, sports science support and consultancy to everyday amateur athletes who aspire to take part in sporting challenges, achieve their potential and accomplish their dreams.

Achievements

2008
Olympic Champion – 3km Individual Pursuit
World Champion – 3km Individual Pursuit
World Champion – Womens Team Pursuit

2007
Silver Medal World Track Championships – 3km Individual Pursuit
British Champion – 3km Individual Pursuit

2006
British Time Trial Champion

2005
World Champion – Womens Quad Sculls
Overall World Cup Winner – Womens Quad Sculls

2004
Olympic Silver Medallist – Womens Quad Sculls
Overall World Cup Winner – Womens Quad Sculls
Princess Grace Challenge Cup – Henley Royal Regatta

2003
4th Place World Championships
World Cup Silver Medallist

2002
5th Place World Championship
World Cup Silver Medallist
U23 British Indoor Rowing Champion

2001
5th Place World Championship
World Cup Silver Medallist
U23 British Indoor Rowing Champion

2000
U23 World Champion
4th Place World University Rowing Championships
National Champion – Rowing

1999
Commonwealth Games Silver Medal
4th Place U23 World Championships
Winner Women’s Henley Regatta

1998
Disqualified for steering impediment from Silver Medal at Junior World Championships
Winner Women’s Henley Regatta