Sarah Ulmer

This week we read about Sarah Ulmer. Prior to reading this text we explored what prior knowledge we had about Sarah Ulmer and cycling. We discovered that we didn't know that much about the topic. Finn did know that cyclists race at a valendrome. What do you know about Sarah Ulmer?

Sarah Ulmer became the first New Zealander to win an Olympic cycling gold when she was victorious in the women’s individual pursuit in Athens in 2004. She recorded a world record time in the final. When she left Athens at the end of the games, Ulmer held the Olympic title, the Olympic , Commonwealth and World records, and the Commonwealth Games title for the 3000m pursuit. Ulmer’s strength in the individual pursuit was that she held her speed so well, whereas others tended to blast out of the blocks and then wobble home. In the Olympic final, against Katie Mactier, Ulmer trailed by a second after 1000m. After that she was remorselessly efficient. When she was done, she had recorded 3min 24.537s and had won by a staggering 3.113s, this in a sport that is measured in thousandths of a second. Her games team-mates tended to seek her out before their events, cherishing her positive attitude, experience and encouraging manner. She was captain of the 2002 Commonwealth Games team and given the honour of carrying the flag at the Athens Olympics closing ceremony.