Ulmer was born in
Auckland, where she studied at the
Diocesan School for Girls. Her grandfather
Ron Ulmer was a track cyclist for New Zealand at the
1938 British Empire Games. Her father Gary was a national road and track champion.
Individual pursuit races In 1994, she won the World Junior Championship and placed second at the
1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada with a time of 3 minutes 51 seconds. At the
1996 Atlanta Olympics, she was seventh after qualifying 6th with 3m 43s. At the
1998 Commonwealth Games in
Kuala Lumpur, she won the gold medal with 3m 41.7s. At the
2000 Sydney Olympics, she qualified 4th with 3m 36.8s and came 4th after losing the ride off for third by 0.08 of a second. In May 2004, she won the
World Championship in
Melbourne and set a world record of
3m 30.6s in qualifying. At the Athens
2004 Olympics she broke the world record in qualifying with
3m 26.4s and took almost two seconds off that time to win the gold in the final with 3m 24.5s. Ulmer reduced the world record by six seconds. The silver and bronze medalists,
Katie Mactier from
Australia and
Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel from the
Netherlands, also went under the previous world record (3m 30.6s) in each of their three rides. They rode faster with each ride and rode 3m 27.6s and 3m 27.0s respectively in the finals. In May 2010 at Aguascalientes, Mexico at an altitude of , American
Sarah Hammer broke Ulmer's world record with a time of 3m 22.269s. As of September 2014 nine current
world cycling records for distances of 4 km or less have been set at Aguascalientes. The current world championship record of 3m 27.268s was set by fellow New Zealander,
Alison Shanks in Melbourne in 2012.
Other races Ulmer did well in
points races, winning a junior world championship and placing 3rd and 4th at senior world championships. She placed 2nd and 5th (twice) at Commonwealth Games. After the 2004 Olympics she switched to road racing. The Cycling Archives website includes results for her competing in road races in the US, France, Australia, Belgium and Germany from 1999 to 2006.
Other information Ulmer trained at the velodrome in
Te Awamutu. Her home town is
Cambridge. Ulmer has two daughters. Ulmer announced her retirement from cycling on 24 November 2007. She attended the 2008 Olympics as a mentor. In 2011, Ulmer signed up as an 'ambassador' for the
New Zealand Cycle Trail. ==Palmarès==