Laura Trott
Laura Trott’s rise through the sport of track cycling has been fast and extremely successful, and at the age of 20 she became an Olympic Champion in the team pursuit and is set to star in the omnium at London 2012. It's fair to say she's come a long way from the girl who took up the sport to help regulate her breathing due to being born with a collapsed lung and then being diagnosed with asthma.
Laura first started riding recreationally with her mum, who had taken up cycling to lose weight. But she quickly started competing, and won the junior World Champion title in the omnium, not to mention winning National titles in track, road and time trial racing. At 18 she was selected at elite level for the 2010 European Track Championships, winning gold in the team pursuit. Laura was also selected for England’s Commonwealth Games squad, where she was the youngest member.
Fast facts:
- Laura was born with a collapsed lung and also has asthma
- The song which revs her up before a race is Bruce Springsteen's 'No Surrender'
- Her favourite food is chocolate.
2011 saw Laura make her debut on the senior World Championships stage, winning gold in the women’s team pursuit. In 2012 she was part of the team, along with Dani King and Joanna Rowsell, who not only broke the team pursuit world record twice in one day, but retained the World Champions' rainbow jerseys for the second year running. Laura added another gold and World Champion title to her growing collection in the omnium.
The womens team pursuit performances at London 2012 have been sensational, as they broke the world record for the sixth consecutive time to take Olympic Gold. Laura became a double Gold medallist after a brilliant performance in the omnium. Trailing going into the last event Laura produced a stunning 500m time trial to overhaul her US rival and take Gold. This completed an amazing Olympics for Laura and at the age of just 20 is set to win many more Gold's in the future.
