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Cycling (time trial)

Born: 03/10/82

Career highlights

Pooley won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympic time trial, an event in which she earned her first world title in 2010.

Inbetween those successes, she won the Grand Boucle Feminine, a race often dubbed "the women's Tour de France", and also ended Nicole Cooke's stranglehold on the national road race title.

Career background

She said after her silver at the 2008 Olympics: "I never planned to be a cyclist. My background is as a runner but because of the injury problems I started cycling as a way of cross-training and then I had a go at triathlon.

"I still considered myself a triathlete when I started road racing in 2005 - and I only went to my first few road races because a friend in my triathlon club persuaded me to go with her."

The Cambridge graduate put her PhD in soil engineering on hold to race full-time with the Cervelo professional team.

Did you know?

Her first road race team were called Team Fat Birds UK (for the record, she's 5ft 1in and weighs under eight stone).