Sharon Laws

Born in Kenya to British parents, Sharon Laws took a long and unusual route to being a professional cyclist and eventually an Olympian. Though she was a county level hockey player as a schoolgirl, Laws concentrated on her studies and earned a degree in biology from Nottingham University. After a period doing volunteer work in East Africa, she returned to the UK to complete a master’s degree in conservation at University College London, after which she was offered a job as an environmental advisor with the Civil Service.

Her first cycle race came when she was already 27 and was mainly as training for more gruelling, multi-discipline “Adventure races” in which she successfully competed while posted to South Africa. After a return to the UK and growing success in endurance mountain bike races, a new job with the Rio Tinto Corporation then took her to Australia in late 2006.

By the end of the following year she was making regular visits to the podium in minor Australian races but it still came as a shock when she made a huge breakthrough by placing 2nd in the Australian National Championships at the start of 2008 sandwiched between Oenone Wood and Olympic champion Sara Carrigan. This display earned her a contract with the Team Halfords professional team and a sabbatical from her job. Laws then won the British national time trial championships in early summer to clinch a place at the Beijing Olympics. Her story garnered enough publicity for the BBC to shoot a segment for their Olympic preview programme but she hit a pothole whilst filming and suffered a broken fibula just six weeks before the Games began. She recovered in time to compete but her supporting role to Nicole Cooke was compromised when she was twice brought down by accidents taking place in front of her and finished 35th.

Despite being a late starter she had a ten year pro career which was highlighted by a win at the 2012 British Road Race Championships. After struggling through the 2016 season she retired in August of that year and only two months later was diagnosed with stage IV cervical cancer. She received chemotherapy and was well enough to join the commentary team for the TV coverage of the women’s Tour of Britain in summer 2017 before succumbing to the disease just before Christmas of the same year.