Breaking headline... Rebecca Romero quits GB Olympic program

top_bhoy
top_bhoy Posts: 1,424
edited October 2011 in Pro race
Breaking headline on the BBC Sports page....Olympic champion Rebecca Romero quits British Cycling's Olympic programme

No further info on it at this stage. Not sure if this means she will quit cycling or simply going to do her own thing for the Olympics (if that is even possible).

PS I thought this was the best forum for this item and not track:-)))

Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Saw that.

    I always got the impression she was very ambivalent about competing, hating it, but somehow addicted to it.

    Makes sense she quit in light of that and the various setbacks.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    She won gold in Beijing but has she done anything else?
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    She probably wouldn't have got in the team anyway. The pursuit team have been getting on just fine without her.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Kléber wrote:
    She won gold in Beijing but has she done anything else?

    Silver in rowing.
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Yes from what I've picked up she's not been looking like she'd make the team anyway - think she needed to show something at the nationals which she missed. I don't follow it that closely though so if someone can correct me on that great.

    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    Kléber wrote:
    She won gold in Beijing but has she done anything else?

    Silver in rowing.
    Ah, yes I know that. I meant to ask what she's done since. Not much has suggested she was on track for 2012 in the first place, I'd assumed she was out anyway.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Yeah.

    It's a shame. She gives good interviews.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    She gave an excellent interview to Kimmage titled "the pursuit of happiness" .

    Apologies for not giving the link, but I don't subscribe to Murdoch's papers. From what I remember though, it well worth the read.
  • Square peg in a round hole by all accounts. Cycling is about more than just producing the right numbers.
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Which means what ?

    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • which means I'd have a go her.
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
    momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
  • smithy21
    smithy21 Posts: 2,204
    Square peg in a round hole by all accounts. Cycling is about more than just producing the right numbers.

    Eh? So she was a round peg for Beijing but a square peg now? I dont understand.
  • Well, after winning gold once do you need to do it all over again? Some aren't like Steve Redgrave, repeating the cycle over and over, but move on in life and change their focus.
  • verylonglegs
    verylonglegs Posts: 3,949
    She seems to be an interesting character, well that is what came across in the interview mentioned by Tusher as I remember reading it too. More complex than your usual blindly dedicated athlete. Surely the fact she made the podium in two different disciplines tells you that.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    I seem to recall she was originally thinking about giving up cycling altogether and was looking at other sports that she might win an Olympic medal at (speed skating comes to mind?) after the pursuit was thrown out. Was she aiming to do the road time trial? Apparently she competed in a recent 10 on my local circuit and was flying according to a club mate who took part.
  • top_bhoy
    top_bhoy Posts: 1,424
    In the short interviews I have read from her, she has been critical with the way cycling removed the pursuit (and other events) mid Olympics. She has a point!!

    Good luck to her; to reach the very top tier in two entirely different sports takes a bit of doing and undoubtedly, a huge amount of dedication and sacrifice. Maybe some footballers or rugby players could do worse than look at her as a role model.
  • SLX01
    SLX01 Posts: 338
    Maybe she has time now to go hinish the LEJOG challenge she pulled out of to save her knees for the Olympics.
  • andrew_s
    andrew_s Posts: 2,511
    Pross wrote:
    I seem to recall she was originally thinking about giving up cycling altogether and was looking at other sports that she might win an Olympic medal at (speed skating comes to mind?) after the pursuit was thrown out. Was she aiming to do the road time trial? Apparently she competed in a recent 10 on my local circuit and was flying according to a club mate who took part.

    That's pretty much what I heard. Speed skating would have been a good fit, but the Winter Olympics were only 2 years after Beijing, which wasn't long to convert.
    She left rowing because she wanted to be responsible for herself, not part of a team and dependent on others for results. With the IP being dropped, that only really leaves the TT, and it would be very difficult to get selected for that on domestic results without winning the Nationals..
    I'd guess that the decision to go back to the track was too late, and possibly less than wholehearted.