Ellesse Andrews

Ellesse Mote Andrews (born 31 December 1999) is a New Zealand racing cyclist. She represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Summer Olympics, 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.

Andrews won four medals, including two gold at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships.

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

2017 UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships

2018 Oceania Track Cycling Championships

2019 UCI Track Cycling World Cup

2021 Tokyo Olympic Games

2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games

2023 UCI Track Cycling World Championships

2024 Paris Olympic Games

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.