Ellesse Andrews
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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.
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.
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 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.
Major 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 Bronze medal Team Pursuit (Hong Kong)
2021
Tokyo Olympic Games 2nd Keirin
2022
Birmingham Commonwealth Games 1st Gold medal Sprint 1st Gold medal Team sprint 1st Gold medal Keirin 2nd Silver medal Team pursuit
2023
UCI Track Cycling World Championships 1st Gold medal Keirin 3rd Bronze medal Sprint
2024
Paris Olympic Games 1st Sprint 1st Keirin 2nd Team Sprint
Honours 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.
Notes
External links
- at UCI
- at Cycling Archives
- at ProCyclingStats
- at CycleBase
- at Olympics.com
- at the New Zealand Olympic Committee
- at Olympedia
- at InterSportStats
- at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (archived)
- at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded byCampbell Stewart | Halberg Awards – Emerging Talent Award 2017 | Succeeded byMaddi Wesche |