Romero won gold in the women's 3000m individual pursuit at the Beijing Olympics with a time of 3m 28.321s, coming in just ahead of team-mate Wendy Houvenaghel. Romero called winning gold in Beijing "magical".

She is the second British competitor ever to win medals in two separate sports, alongside Cardiff-born Paulo Radmilovic, who won gold medals at waterpolo and in the 4x200m freestyle.

Romero, who was born in Carshalton and lives in Manchester, won an Olympic rowing silver in Athens four years ago in the women's quadruple sculls and turned her hand to cycling to win silver in the women's individual pursuit at the 2007 World Championships in Mallorca.

The 28-year-old athlete started rowing aged 17 when her family moved to Twickenham in Middlesex. She says on her website: "I wanted to take up the opportunity of living nearby the River Thames and looked into trying a water sport."

She was part of the Great Britain rowing team in the 1998 Junior World Championships, taking second place. Many more successes were to follow, including a gold medal in the 2005 world championships and the silver in Athens in 2004.

Romero also attended St Mary's University College, Twickenham and graduated with a 2:1 Joint Honours degree in Sports Science and English in 2002.

While taking time out from the 2005 racing season due to a back injury, she was approached by British Cycling. She was put through a testing procedure, which found she had a high potential as a cyclist, and began training in April 2006.

Romero quickly established herself as a top-level cyclist. In 2007 she won silver at the world championships for the 3km pursuit, followed the year after by world championship gold medals in the 3km pursuit and the team pursuit.

On her website, Romero says that her motto has become "living the dream". She said: "For me on a personal scale, this one little phrase sums up so much of what I have been thinking, feeling and searching for.

"We must take responsibility to live our dreams and make them happen and not put them in the hands of others."
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