Jon and Ellesse Andrews.
Last September he stepped up when his daughter was left without a coach – this week her team made Olympic history.
Ellesse Andrews in the spotlight. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins.
Jon Andrews took over as Cycling New Zealand’s high performance sprint team coach in September last year.
“The previous coach unexpectedly resigned to return to Australia…they needed somebody that could fill that gap,” he said.
“I just happened to be the right person at the right time that was available.”
In the team was his daughter Ellesse Andrews, who earned silver in the keirin event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Her father had been “a massive part of the journey”, Ellesse said, speaking to Cambridge News at the naming of the New Zealand Olympic cycling team at the Cambridge velodrome on May 22.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind time, you know, learning that our coach had to leave for family reasons back to Australia and then going to market again and trying to find someone to come on board, and he put his hand up,” she said.
“It was amazing because my parents don’t live here anymore, so he’s moved up and sort of put his other job on hold for a bit to help us get to the games.”
Ellesse and her teammates Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton made history yesterday morning when they won New Zealand’s first Olympic women’s team sprint medal at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, near Paris.
The thrilling race saw the kiwis beaten by just 0.473 seconds by Great Britain’s Katy Marchant, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell.
From left Jon Andrews, Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton, Ellesse Andrews and Olivia King. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins
Also speaking to Cambridge News on May 22, Jon said he was “really proud of Ellesse as a person and an athlete”.
“Ellesse is a really creative girl; she’s involved with a good friend of hers, Max, in helping the New Zealand team create a new song, so she’s a singer and a musician… so she’s got this sort of different parts to Ellesse that not many people see, but we see as parents, which is kind of nice.”
He said his daughter was “very driven”.
“She’s the current world champion in keiran and she, as a very young athlete in Tokyo, won a silver medal. So, you know, she’s done exceptionally well right through her cycling career and she loves it. She loves training with her teammates and they’ve got a really good bond between the four of them, which is special.”
Jon and his family moved to Cambridge in 2016 when he became head coach of Cycling New Zealand’s U19 track cycling team. He moved back to the South Island when that role ended in 2019, but Ellesse has lived here ever since.
“I do love living here,” she said.
“I have an awesome place and, you know, lots of friends, a great partner and I think all of those things really bring together that sense of community.”
She said the biggest hurdle she had overcome to get to the Olympics was recovering from a serious accident this summer.
“I had a crash and broke my collarbone and had a bad concussion, so I think that was sort of the latest hurdle, February for a couple of months.
“I was racing again sort of eight, 10 weeks after the crash and then back into training here so it’s been, honestly, a crazy year and it’s gone so fast.”
The 24-year-old, originally from Christchurch, has yet to race in the keirin, where she is reigning world champion.
At New Zealand House, a supporters’ hub on Paris’ Champs-Élysées, kiwi Olympic team members created a montage of photos signifying special moments.
Ellesse’s Polaroid is a snap of her and her dad, taken when she was little. She is riding her bike and he is about to push her down a dirt hill.
“Dad’s been a bigger part of the journey than we all would have thought of about a year ago, but it’s been great,” she said.
New Zealand sprint cycling team coach Jon Andrews and his daughter Ellesse Andrews (who is in the team) reminisce over a Polaroid taken when Ellesse was a child, riding a bike and he was about to push her down a dirt hill. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins.
