Otago riders Shanks (25) and Greg Henderson (31) were named in the seven-strong track cycling team.
Craig Palmer, the personal coach of Shanks and Hayden Roulston (Ashburton), is a sports scientist with the cycling team.
‘‘It's been a long season and tense at times,'' Shanks told the Otago Daily Times after her training ride in Christchurch yesterday.
‘‘The Olympics have been hanging over my head for the last 12 months and it was nice to get my selection confirmed.''
Just getting to Beijing is not enough for Shanks. She wants to move up the international rankings from her present seventh spot.
‘‘I'll be training hard over the next few months and riding as fast as I can at Beijing,'' Shanks said.
Shanks earned her place after a series of personal best performances in the women's 3km individual pursuit that saw her ranked fourth in the World Cup circuit over the last 12 months and seventh at the world championships.
Shanks' best times for the event are: 3min 35sec (world championships, Manchester 2008), 3min 37.438sec (Invercargill, February 2008), 3min 37.7sec (world championships, Majorca 2007), 3min 38.4sec (World Cup, Copenhagen 2008), 3min 38.8sec (World Cup, Sydney 2007), 3min 39.1sec (World Cup, Manchester 2007).
The 12 top-ranked riders in the world qualify for Beijing.
‘‘The pursuit is essentially a time trial,'' Shanks said. ‘‘If that means a top three spot, that would be good.''
Shanks did not have the dream of competing at the Olympics when she started serious cycling three years ago. Her progress has been remarkable.
‘‘A lot of little steps have added up,'' she said. ‘‘My full focus will now be on Beijing.''
As she has moved up the world ranking list, Shanks has become more of a celebrity in New Zealand sport but she has not felt the pressure outside.
‘‘It is just the pressure I have put on myself,'' Shanks said. ‘‘I know what I'm capable of and am not affected by outside pressure.''
Shanks has been to three world championships and many World Cup meetings and is now an experienced cyclist.
Her world championship record is: 2006, Bordeaux, 3min 45sec (ninth); 2007, Majorca, 3min 37.7sec (eighth) and 2008, Manchester, 3min 35sec (seventh).
Shanks trained in Christchurch over the last few days while her coach put Roulston through the wind tunnel test at the Canterbury University Engineering School.
She will spend a week training with the New Zealand team at the Invercargill velodrome next week and then have three days back in Dunedin before joining her Jazz Apple road team in the United States until June 30.
After that she will join Palmer and Roulston at the New Zealand training base in Limoux, France, and will move to the New Zealand Olympic training base in Bordeaux, France, on July 13.
The New Zealand cycling team departs for Beijing on August 8.
Shanks has done higher and more intense mileage in her build-up and is expected to be in a better position than last year.
Palmer is also monitoring her closely with bio-mechanical analysis and noting the power output she puts in on the bike.
Following the world championships in Manchester, New Zealand qualified for the men's points race, individual pursuit, team pursuit, Madison and the women's individual pursuit and points race.
Henderson, the 2004 world champion in the 15km scratch race, won the Commonwealth Games gold (2002) and bronze (1998) medals in the points race and finished fourth in the same event at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Henderson is currently racing in the road race Tour of Georgia with his professional team, High Road.
Roulston and Henderson won the Madison silver medal at the 2003 world championships.
Roulston has made a spectacular return to the international scene from a premature retirement forced on him by an irregular heartbeat 18 months ago.
He set the fastest time by a New Zealander in finishing fourth in the individual pursuit at the recent world championships.
He also anchored the pursuit team and was ninth in the Madison with Henderson.
BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott said other riders may be added to the team to provide the best options for an exhaustive Olympic programme.
He said they would look to nominate other riders following the announcement of the final team (road, mountain bike and BMX) in June, based on their ability to cover key events on the track programme.
