Joanna Rowsell Shand MBE
We are delighted to confirm that Team GB double Olympic gold medallist Joanna Rowsell Shand MBE will be our special guest at the Showcase Classic & Sports Car Gala.
Joanna was talent spotted at school aged 15, and represented Great Britain at the junior World Championships in only her second year of racing.
After finishing her A Levels, Joanna relocated from London to Manchester to be a full time cyclist, and within 9 months won her first World Title in the women’s Team Pursuit.
A series of setbacks throughout 2010 put her place on Team GB at a home Olympic Games in jeopardy, but she battled back to become World Champion, World Record holder, and then Olympic Champion in 2012.
After the London 2012 Olympics Joanna focussed more on individual events, and in 2014 completed the World Championships and Commonwealth Games double with gold medals at both events in the Individual Pursuit that year.
Most recently Joanna has been on our TV screens again, as part of Team GB in 2016 at the Rio Olympics, where she and her cycling team blew the competition away to take a gold medal yet again, and 3 new World Records in the process !
Joanna is also becoming a familiar face in sports commentating, having appeared several times on the BBC, most notably sharing the set with Clare Balding and Sir Chris Hoy.
Joanna will join us in her role as ambassador for the charity Alopecia UK.
Joanna has lived with alopecia herself since she was just 10 years old, but as her success has shown, she has never let it stand in the way of competing and winning at the highest level.
Learn more about the charity Alopecia UK here, and the amazing work it does.
Watch Joanna and her teammates
win GOLD for Team GB !
Watch Joanna's post Olympics
interview on ITV
BBC summary of Joanna's career on her retirement from international cycling on 14th March 2017