Cherise Willeit (née Taylor, previously Stander; born 6 November 1989) is a South African professional road cyclist.^[1] She has won a single African and four South African championship titles, in both the road race and the time trial, and later represented her nation at the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[2] Willeit also raced for Belgium's Lotto–Belisol Ladies professional cycling team in 2011 and 2012.^[3]

Born in Pretoria, Willeit qualified for the South African squad in the women's road race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by receiving one of the nation's two available berths from the UCI World Cup.^[4] She successfully completed a grueling race with a fifty-ninth-place effort, finishing in 3:48:33, surpassing Cuba's Yumari González by a wide, three-minute gap.^[5][6] That same year, Willeit earned the women's elite road race title in her first attempt at the South African National Road Race Championships.^[7]

Willeit's success in the South African Championships landed her a spot on the MTN team for the 2009 season, followed by her official stint on the Lotto–Honda Team in 2011. That year, Willeit flourished, winning two time trial events at both the South African Championships, and at the UCI African Continental Championships in Asmara, Eritrea.^[8]

Willeit also sought her bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) excluded her from the team. Moreover, Cycling South Africa decided to reject her appeal based on the board's scrutiny and decision in the due process and procedures for the national team's final selection.^[9]

Willeit married elite mountain biker and African under-23 champion Burry Stander in May 2012. Stander was killed during a collision with a taxi while training near his residence in Shelly Beach the following year.^[10][11] She later married Benjamin Willeit and became a mother to a son.