Romero lives her dream as world-class cyclist

By Simon Baskett

MADRID (Reuters) - "Live your dream" is the motto emblazoned across Rebecca Romero's Web site and the 28-year-old Briton has done just that in making her remarkable transition from Olympic rower to world-class track cyclist.

Drained, disillusioned and downhearted, Romero decided to call time on her rowing career two years ago after winning a silver medal in the Athens Games and a gold at the world championships in 2005.

A chance try-out at track cycling in April 2006 reignited her enthusiasm and inspired her to take on a new challenge and bid to join the select band of athletes who have competed in two different sports at the summer Olympics.

Romero's powerful physique, her finely tuned competitive instinct and her experience of top-class sport gave her the raw ingredients needed to make the switch but the cycling world was taken aback by the scale and speed of her success.

In her first true competitive race she became the British time trial champion and less than 12 months after taking up the sport she won a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the world championships in Palma, Mallorca.

Making such an impressive start to her cycling career means that Romero has been obliged to raise the bar and is aiming for gold medals at this year's worlds in Manchester and the Olympic Games in Beijing.

"When I started cycling the idea was to embark on a two-year project to see if I could get myself to another Olympics in a different sport which would have been a huge achievement in itself," Romero told Reuters in an interview.