Cycling: Ulmer's D-Day - will she go or will she stay?

Sarah Ulmer

Olympic champion Sarah Ulmer will announce today whether she intends to carry on in the sport.

Ulmer's future has been uncertain since her gold medal-winning performance in Athens last August.

Ulmer told the Herald in February that she had given herself a deadline of April to decide whether she would get back on the bike and set her sights on the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March next year, or retire.

She said the deciding factor would be whether she had what she called "the drive to attack another project with a vengeance".

"The body can handle anything, but the mind might find it more difficult," she said.

Since then she has said she doubts whether she could repeat that golden moment in Athens when she blitzed the field to win the 3000m individual pursuit, setting a world record along the way.

BikeNZ's new track coach, Terry Gyde, revealed this week that he doubted Ulmer would continue.

"I'd love to have her back but I'm not that confident, to tell you the truth."

Along with her Olympic gold medal, Ulmer also has two Commonwealth Games gold medals and a silver, leaving her precious little to achieve in the sport.

If she were to retire she would follow in the footsteps of rower Rob Waddell and swimmer Danyon Loader, who also quit just months after their Olympic gold medal-winning performances.