originally from leeds, based in manchester since her switch to cycling in april 2013. marchant began her sporting life as a heptathlete, and represented great britain in that event at the 2012 world junior championships. the switchover was instigated by her former coach, toni minichiello (best known for coaching jessica ennis), who suggested the move to cycling having seen the results of her power output on a wattbike test. marchant had cycled for leisure on a mountain bike and on the road, but had no experience of track cycling. after a 6-week trial period, she permanently switched to track cycling. she became a member of british cycling's olympic academy in april 2013, and graduated to the olympic development programme in november 2013.