Rebecca Romero hopes to create a piece of history in Beijing by becoming the first British woman to win Olympic medals in two summer sports.
A rowing silver medallist in Athens in the quadruple sculls, Romero has switched sports and is now one of the world's best track cyclists.
She won titles at the world track championship in March in the individual and team 3,000 metre pursuit just two years after first trying the sport.
‘Having already competed at one Olympic Games and won a silver medal, and being the competitive so-and-so and greedy guts that I am, I would like to raise the barrier and aim to become the first athlete to win Olympic medals in two different sports,’ Romero wrote on her website.
In a video diary posted on the Internet, Romero said she was scared the first time she tested a bike at the velodrome.
‘You look at the steepness of the bank -- the banking on the track ... you can't imagine that anyone could ever get up there and actually stick to it and not slide down and fall off.
‘There I was on my own, just riding around ... and I just had to do it because I had to make a good impression and not look fearful and I remember that my hands were sweating and it was just awful. It was really scary.’
After winning the world championships in rowing in 2005, Romero was injured and tired of rowing. As she worked on recovering from her injury she decided she had spent enough time with rowing and wanted to try something new.
British Cycling officials heard she was looking for a change and invited her to do a try-out. They were impressed.
‘It just kind of proved the point to myself about how being happy in the sport and at ease with the system and having a great time and having a better environment really helped me develop as an athlete,’ she said in the video diary.
Romero will compete in the individual pursuit and the points race in Beijing.
