Rebecca Romero

Rebecca Jayne Romero is an English sportswoman, born on 24 January 1980 in Carshalton to an English mother and a Spanish father, who won Olympic medals in both rowing and track cycling. She took up rowing at 17 with Kingston Rowing Club, won silver in the quadruple sculls at the 2004 Summer Olympics with Frances Houghton, Alison Mowbray and Debbie Flood, and was a world champion in the quadruple sculls in 2005 before retiring from rowing in 2006 with a back injury. British Cycling then invited her to try track cycling, and within two years she was world champion in the individual pursuit and the team pursuit in 2008 and Olympic champion in the individual pursuit in Beijing, which made her the first British woman and the second woman anywhere to win Olympic medals in two distinctly different sports. She was appointed MBE in 2009, later turned to triathlon and was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame in 2023.