Sarah Hammer

Sarah Hammer
	Sarah Hammer (2010)
To person
Full name	Sarah Kathryn Hammer
Date of birth	August 18, 1983
nation	United States
discipline	Track cycling (endurance)
End of career	2017
Most important successes
	Olympic games 2012 - Omnium 2012 - Omnium and Team Pursuit
	Last updated: September 20, 2017

Sarah Kathryn Hammer (born August 18, 1983 in Redondo Beach ) is a former American cyclist . She has been world champion in track cycling seven times and won two silver medals at the Olympic Games.

Sports career

On the initiative of her father Cliff, himself an avid cyclist, Sarah Hammer began cycling at the age of eight. In 1995 she was the first US champion in her age group. In 2001 she was both second in the single pursuit at the track world championships and the US championships in the individual time trial on the road, each with the juniors. In 2003 she retired from active cycling because she did not feel up to the pressure to perform.

Sarah Hammer felt motivated again by the reports about the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and returned to cycling. In 2005 she won two US titles and won several World Cup races . In 2006 and 2007 she finally became world champion in the single pursuit twice in a row, and in 2008 she was also second. In 2010 Sarah Hammer was able to win the world title in this discipline for the third time. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , she finished fifth in the singles pursuit.

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London , Hammer won the silver medal in the team pursuit together with Dotsie Bausch and Lauren Tamayo . In 2013 she became the world champion in Omnium for the first time in Minsk and for the fifth time in the single pursuit. In 2016, Hammer won her seventh World Championship title, together with Kelly Catlin , Chloe Dygert and Jennifer Valente her first in the team pursuit. She won 14 medals at world championships, two Olympic silver medals and was twice Pan-American champion.

In 2016 Sarah Hammer was nominated for participation in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and won the silver medal in the Omnium. The following year she was runner-up in the points race . In September 2017 she announced her retirement from competitive cycling in order to concentrate on her work as a trainer.

Records

On May 12, 2010 Sarah Hammer set a new world record with 3: 22.269 minutes in the single pursuit over 3000 meters at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico . She improved Sarah Ulmer's old record at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens by almost two seconds. Until then, Hammer held the US record in the pursuit, which she last improved to 3: 27.514 minutes in the World Cup race in Cali on November 12, 2009 .

One day later, on May 13, 2010, Hammer, together with her teammates Lauren Tamayo and Dotsie Bausch, set a new world record in the team pursuit with 3: 19.569 minutes . This meant that the Americans were almost two seconds faster than the New Zealand threesome in his world record during the 2010 Track World Cup in Copenhagen.