Victoria Pendleton
Victoria Pendleton is undoubtedly the first lady of British cycling. Over the last 10 years she’s enjoyed unprecedented success in every area of the sport.
Her precocious talent was first spotted during her teens but it wasn’t until after she had completed a degree in Sports and Exercise Science that she turned her attention fully on her cycling career.
Fast facts
- Pendleton rode her first race event at the tender age of nine
- She’s a nine-time world champion on the track
- Pendleton raced for Mildenhall Cycling Club as an amateur
By that time she had already amassed six British Championship medals, and six national titles were to follow in the two seasons she spent honing her skills for the 2004 Olympic Games at the UCI's World Cycling Centre in Switzerland.
Pendleton finished sixth in the time trial and ninth in the sprint in Athens, but a year later put that disappointment firmly behind her by claiming her first world sprint title in Los Angeles. She was only the third British female cyclist in 40 years to achieve such a feat.
Buoyed by that success, Pendleton won gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2006, and in 2007 swept the board at the World Championships with victories in the keirin, individual sprint and team sprint alongside Shanaze Reade.
2008 was the year Pendleton's profile sky-rocketed after following up two further World Championship titles with her gold medal in the individual sprint event at the Beijing Olympics. Those successes not only earned her worldwide acclaim, but also an MBE in the 2009 New Year Honours List.
But far from being overawed by all the attention, Pendleton racked up two further World Championship medals in 2009 and retained her rainbow individual sprint jersey. In 2010 she achieved an astonishing fourth consecutive individual sprint title at the World Championships and rounded off the event in Denmark with a silver in the keirin.
Check out Victoria's Gatorade sprint masterclass:
Her 26th and 27th British national titles followed last September, and the 30-year-old's 2010-11 World Cup campaign also proved successful with seven medals in all – two of them gold. And in the 2012 track cycling world championships in Melbourne Pendleton became Individual Sprint World Champion for the 5th time.
Victoria and Jess Varnish competed in the Team Sprint at London 2012 and after setting a World Record in their first heat looked set for a medal. Unfotunately they were disqualfied after the second round because of an incorrect changeover. Victoria made up for this dissapointment by winning a brilliant Gold in the Keirin. Unfortunately it wasn't to be a fairytale ending for Victoria, as she won Silver in the individual sprint. It brought an end to a brilliant career that has seen her dominate her sport for 10 years.
