Ellesse Andrews

PARIS 2024 EVENTS: Cycling-Track: Women's Team Sprint, Individual Sprint, Keirin

Ellesse Andrews became the first New Zealand rider to win an individual gold medal in a sprint discipline at a world championship with victory in the Keirin at Glasgow in 2023, the event in which she earned the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics – again a first for NZ female sprinters.

Andrews won medals and titles in both sprint and endurance at the junior World Championships, which earned her the Emerging Talent honours at the Halberg Awards. She moved her focus to sprint, reaching fifth in the world in Keirin in her first full season of international competition – before making her spectacular Olympic debut in Tokyo, winning silver in the Keirin and breaking the national record on her way to the semifinals in sprint.

She won three gold medals at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, plus a silver in the Team Pursuit, filling in for an injured rider, and claimed the bronze in the Sprint at the Glasgow Worlds and silver in the same discipline at last year's world champs. Ellesse was a finalist in the Halberg Sportswoman of the Year awards.