Ellesse Andrews
New Zealand cyclist (born 1999)
Ellesse Mote Andrews MNZM (born 31 December 1999) is a New Zealand racing cyclist. She represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she gained a silver medal in the keirin. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, she earned two gold medals for winning the keirin and sprint, as well as a silver medal in the team sprint.
01Early life
Andrews was born in Christchurch Women's Hospital at 23:45 on 31 December 1999, fifteen minutes short of the year 2000. Her father is Olympic cyclist Jon Andrews, who represented New Zealand at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and 1992 Summer Olympics. Her mother is Angela Mote-Andrews, who competed internationally in mountain biking. Mote-Andrews was preparing herself for her inaugural participation at world championships, the 1999 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Åre, Sweden, when she got pregnant. She has one younger sister.
Andrews grew up in Wānaka and attended Mount Aspiring College until the end of Year 11 before moving to St Peter's School in Cambridge for the final two years of secondary school.
02Cycling career
Andrews started cycling competitively aged 14, initially mountain biking but she soon changed to track cycling. She asked her father to pay for dance classes and a deal was made that they would do more cycling. Shortly afterwards, her father bought her a track bike, which got her into track cycling.
Andrews won four medals, including two gold at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships. Competing in the Izu Velodrome, she won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics keirin. She had to go through the repechage to progress to quarter and semi finals. In the final, she moved into second place with two laps to go and held that place.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Andrews became the first woman to win the Olympic gold medal in both the keirin and the sprint at the same games. She had earlier won the silver medal in the team sprint event, alongside Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton.
03Major results
- 2016
- UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships
- 1st Team sprint
- 3rd Individual pursuit
- 2017
- UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 2nd Team pursuit
- 2018
- Oceania Track Cycling Championships
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 2019
- UCI Track Cycling World Cup
- 3rd Team Pursuit (Hong Kong)
- 2021
- Tokyo Olympic Games
- 2nd Keirin
- 2022
- Birmingham Commonwealth Games
- 1st Sprint
- 1st Team sprint
- 1st Keirin
- 2nd Team pursuit
- 2023
- UCI Track Cycling World Championships
- 2024
- Paris Olympic Games
- 1st Sprint
- 1st Keirin
- 2nd Team Sprint
04Honours and awards
Andrews won Secondary School Sportswoman of the Year at the February 2018 Waikato Regional Sports Awards. A week later, she won the Emerging Talent award at the Halberg Awards.
In the 2025 King's Birthday Honours, Andrews was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cycling.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ellesse Andrews”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Ellesse Andrews MNZM (cropped).jpg by Government House, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, CC0
- Ellesse Andrews (NZL) 2020.jpg by Tim Rademacher, CC BY-SA 4.0
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