Ulmer at the 2002 Women's Challenge |
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Sarah Ulmer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 14 March 1976 Auckland, New Zealand |
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| Discipline | Road and track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Pursuiter / Time-triallist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Infobox last updated on 7 September 2008 |
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Sarah Elizabeth Ulmer, ONZM (born 14 March 1976 in Auckland) is the first New Zealander to win an Olympic cycling gold. She won a gold medal and set world records at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens,.
When she left Athens at the end of the games, Ulmer held the Olympic title, the Olympic and world records, the Commonwealth Games title and the Commonwealth Games record for the 3000m individual pursuit.
In mid 2011, it was announced that she would be the official 'ambassador' for the New Zealand Cycle Trail.[1]
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Ulmer was a student of Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland where she also studied French in Form 5. She showed potential in the pursuit as a youngster and rose to prominence when placing second at the 1994 Commonwealth Games at Olympics with 3m 43.176s.
Two years later she won the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur with 3m 41.667s. She looked a medal prospect for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but although she improved to 3m 38.93s, she came fourth.
Two more years on, Ulmer took six seconds off her Sydney time to win the gold at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth games, in the record time of 3m 32.467s.
On 27 March 2004 she set a world record of 3m 30.604s when qualifying for the pursuit at the world championships in Melbourne.[2] Ulmer went to the Athens 2004 Olympics 3000m pursuit and broke the world record in qualifying with 3m 26.4s. She took almost two seconds off that time with 3m 24.537s to win the gold and set a world record. While training in Europe, Ulmer had broken the world record more than once, but this was not made public to reduce pressure from the media.
Ulmer reduced the record by more than six seconds at Athens and two other competitors, Katie Mactier from Australia and Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel from the Netherlands, also finished in less than the record time.
Ulmer trained at the velodrome in Te Awamutu and is a figure both there and her home town of Cambridge.
In the 2005 New Years Honours List, Ulmer was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to cycling.
She announced her retirement from cycling on 24 November 2007 but said she would still be attending the 2008 Olympics as a mentor.
Ulmer welcomed daughter Lilly on 27 October 2009 with her husband.