Pendleton, Victoria

Victoria Pendleton and her twin brother Alex James were born in the family of Max Pendleton and Paulina Vini, formerly known cyclist athletes. She began her sports at the age of nine, on the same track where her parents also trained. At 16, Victoria achieved significant success, and the coach of the youth team recommended her to continue her career as a professional athlete. After school, Pendleton entered Northumbria University ^[2] .

The first big success came to Victoria in 2001 when she won four medals in the national championship. In 2002, she became part of the national team and successfully performed at the Commonwealth Games, taking fourth place in the sprint. At the 2004 Olympics, Victoria became sixth in the time trial and ninth in the sprint ^[2] .

In 2005, Victoria won the first gold in the world championship and begins the period of dominance of the British in sprint disciplines. In 2007-2010, she won seven gold medals at world championships in sprint and keirin . The year 2008 was very successful for Victoria: she won two gold and silver at the World Cup . Then, at the Beijing Olympics, Pendleton won the sprint. ^[2]

In 2011, Pendleton somewhat unexpectedly lost to long-time opponent Australian Anne Mirs in the semifinals of the sprint world championship. A year later, Victoria regained the title ^[3] .

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pendleton took part in three disciplines. In keirin, Victoria did not allow her rivals to get ahead of herself in any of the three rounds and won her second Olympic gold medal. In the team sprint, Pendleton performed in tandem with Jessica Warnish . The British athletes broke the world record in qualification, but already in the next race their achievement was surpassed by the Chinese athletes. In the first round in the confrontation with Ukraine, British athletes showed the result, giving the right to speak in the finals, but the UK team was disqualified for an early change of participants on the track ^[4] . In the sprint qualification, Pendleton set an Olympic record of 10.724. Then, Victoria in the elimination races sequentially ahead of the Russian woman Ekaterina Gnidenko , the Dutchwoman Willy Kanis and reached the quarter finals, where she beat the Belarusian Olga Panarina . In the semifinal match, Victoria confidently ahead of Christina Vogel . In the first round of the finals, Pendleton was ahead of the opponent, but remained second because, in the opinion of the judges, she crossed the enemy’s line of movement and prevented her. In the second race, Anna Mirs won, Victoria Pendleton won silver ^[5] .

After the Games in London, Victoria ended her sports career ^{[3] [6]} .

Victoria graduated from the University and has a degree in sports and physical education ^[2] .

In 2008, shortly before the Olympics, Victoria met Scott Gardner, a sports specialist for the British cycling team. After the games, Gardner, not wanting personal relationships to interfere with the professional, left the UK team. However, he remained Victoria's personal trainer. In 2012, Victoria and Scott announced their engagement. ^{[7] [8]} In September 2013, she married Scott Gardner ^[9] .

Victoria Pendleton starred for the cover of the men's magazine FHM and entered the hundred of the sexiest women in the world in 2009 ^[10] .

• 200 meters git on the move - 10.904 s (2008)
• 500 meters git on the move - 30.61 s (2002)
• 500 meters git from standstill - 33.838 s (2009)
• 1 km git from standstill - 1 m 10.854 (2005) ^[11]

• Two-time Olympic champion (2008, 2012)
• 9-time world champion (2005-2012)
• 2-time European Champion (2011)
• Commonwealth Games Winner (2006)

• Pendleton, Victoria at Cycling Archives