In 2012, she won in preparation for the Olympics at the Track Cycling World Cup in London both the team pursuit and the individual pursuit in February. Rowsell was a member of the team pursuit squad alongside Dani King and Laura Trott, when they won the team pursuit event and set a new world record at the 2011–12 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in London. They broke the record again at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Rowsell won a gold medal for the team pursuit alongside King and Trott. Having already set world record times in both the qualifying and semi-finals in this event, the team also went on to set a new world record time of 3:14.051 in the final.