Ellesse Andrews

Ellesse Andrews (born 31 December 1999) is a New Zealand racing cyclist. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's keirin, winning a silver medal.

She represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Summer Olympics, gaining a silver medal in the Keirin in the latter event.

Early 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, Zoe.

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.

Cycling 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 women's 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.

Major results

 * 2016
 * UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships
 * 1st Jersey rainbow.svg Team sprint
 * 3rd Bronze medal blank.svg Individual pursuit


 * 2017
 * UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships
 * 1st Jersey rainbow.svg Individual pursuit
 * 2nd Silver medal blank.svg Team pursuit


 * 2018
 * Oceania Track Cycling Championships
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Individual pursuit


 * 2019
 * UCI Track Cycling World Cup
 * 3rd Bronze medal blank.svg Team Pursuit (Hong Kong)


 * 2021
 * Tokyo Olympic Games
 * 2nd Silver medal olympic.svg Keirin


 * 2022
 * Birmingham Commonwealth Games
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Sprint
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Team sprint
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Women's keirin
 * 2nd Silver medal blank.svg Team pursuit


 * 2023
 * UCI Track Cycling World Championships
 * 1st Gold medal blank.svg Women's keirin
 * 3rd Bronze medal blank.svg Women's sprint

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.