On this day in 2013: Former Olympic champion Nicole Cooke retires from cycling
The Swansea-born rider was a trailblazer for cycling in Britain.
Former Olympic road race champion Nicole Cooke retired from cycling with immediate effect on this day in 2013.
Born in Swansea, she was a trailblazer for cycling in Britain and in 2008 became the first rider, male or female, to win Olympic and world road-race gold in the same year.
Announcing the decision to call time on her 13-year career, the 10-time British champion said: “My time in the sport is finished. I am very happy with my career.
“I have many, many happy memories over what has been my life’s work since I was 12. I have won every race and more that I dreamed I could win.”
Cooke, who retired at the age of 29, was a four-time world junior champion.
After turning professional, she won gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, before becoming the youngest rider to win the Giro d’Italia – aged 21 – in 2004 following on from triumph at the 2003 World Cup.
Cooke won Britain’s maiden gold of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in heavy rain by the Great Wall of China – the first claimed by a Welsh athlete since 1972 – and backed that up with World Championship gold later that year in Italy.
Cooke had thought she could put an indifferent four years behind her and mount a defence of her title, but finished only 31st.
Following her retirement, British Cycling president Brian Cookson said: “There is no doubt that Nicole has been a pioneering force in women’s cycling.”