Sarah Ulmer
- Sarah Ulmer was born on 14 March 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand.
- Her grandfather Ron represented New Zealand in track cycling at the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney, and her father Gary held national road and track titles in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
- She attended Diocesan School for Girls, in Auckland.
- Growing up, Sarah played squash, volleyball and soccer; cycling was for transport to and from school. Then a school friend persuaded her to start riding competitively and she represented her school as part of the school cycling team when she was in the sixth form.
- Sarah attended the world junior championships in Perth in 1993.
- She began a sports science degree at university but after one year fulltime, had to study part-time to fit around her cycling career.
- In 1994 she won the junior world titles in Ecuador for the individual pursuit and the points race, aged 18 years.
- Later in 1994 Sarah won the silver medal for the individual pursuit at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, and was named Sportswoman of the Year.
- She went on to finish seventh in the 3000 metres individual pursuit at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, in a time which in the previous games would have given her a silver medal.
- Sarah won her first Commonwealth Games gold medal at Kuala Lumpur in 1998, and came second in the points race. She just missed out on a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics two years later. It was later revealed that she had had abdominal surgery just before the games, but Sarah would not use her state of health as an excuse for her performance on the track.
- Sarah retained her Commonwealth Games title at Manchester in 2002, where she was also captain of the New Zealand team. She was also awarded the 2002 Lonsdale Cup which is given by the New Zealand Olympic Committee for the most outstanding contribution to an Olympic or Commonwealth Games sport in that year.
- In her build-up to the 2004 Athens Olympics, Sarah was training by cycling approximately 600 km a week, and weight-training at the gym two or three times a week.
- In May 2004 she won the 3000 metre individual pursuit world championship at Melbourne in a world record time of 3 minutes 30.64 seconds.
- Later that year at the Athens Olympics, Ulmer was flag bearer for the New Zealand team at the opening ceremony.
- In competition at Athens, the Australian rider Katie Mactier broke Ulmer’s world record in her first race, and then improved on her time again in the qualifying round. Sarah broke back in her first ride with a new world record time of 3 minutes 26.400 seconds and in her final against Mactier, finished in 3 minutes 24.537 seconds, with a winning margin of 3.113 seconds.
- After her performances at the Athens Olympic Games, Sarah Ulmer was named the 2005 Halberg Sportsperson of the Year, and was awarded the Lonsdale Cup for the second time.
- In 2004 Sarah launched an annual Auckland fun ride for women and children, called the Bike Day Out. In 2005 the event was renamed the SUB Ride, after she launched the Sarah Ulmer Brand cycles and clothing, and attracted 1800 participants.
- Sarah retired from track racing after the Athens Olympics, but then eight months later decided to try her luck on the road. She qualified for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games in both the road race and the time trial.
- She won the Wellington World Cup road cycling event in March 2006, taking the lead in the race with 20 laps to go.
- Sarah’s partner is her track coach, Brendon Cameron, also an Olympic cyclist, and she will be riding in Melbourne on a custom bike the two have designed together.
- At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Sarah was unable to compete in the time trial because of a recurring back injury. In the road race a crash to fellow New Zealander Melissa Holt upset the Kiwi team plan, and Sarah, after a late surge, was not strong enough in the last seconds of the race to take a better position than 17th.
- Sarah is currently a Sport Ambassador for SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand), running 3-4 hour sessions with students to work on goals, motivation, time management, fair play and other tools needed to succeed as a top athlete.
Sources:
Making of a legend by Richard Becht, Player, October 2004, pp 16-21.
On yer bikes, by Sarah Barnett, Listener, 11 March, 2006, pp 14-17.
Sarah Ulmer sets sight on Olympic steal, by Kimberley Paterson, New Zealand Fitness, June/July 2004, no. 67, pp 8-12.
Sarah Ulmer shows Kiwis can fly, by Grant Johnston, Te Awamutu Courier, 24 August 2004, pp 1-2 .
Those who made a difference, North and South, January 2005, p 64.
New Zealand Olympic Committee website