by Emma Finucane won her third medal of the Paris Olympic Games in the women’s individual sprint at the Velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, while the British cyclists fell far short of their gold medal haul from the Tokyo Games.
Despite it being her first Olympic Games, Finucane was the star of the seven-day track race, winning gold in the team sprint on the first day, bronze in the keirin and bronze in the individual sprint on the final day. Her performance makes her the first British woman in 60 years to win a hat-trick of medals at a single Olympic Games since Mary Rand won gold, silver and bronze in 1964.
“Honestly, it’s like a dream,” said 21-year-old Finucane after the sprint final. “Of course I would have loved to win that gold medal, but gold and two bronze medals are more than I could have ever dreamed of. This week has been a real rollercoaster ride.”
“I cried. I cried tears of joy. I was exhausted and to get up every day and keep fighting, that makes me really proud. I just can’t believe it’s over.”
In the 12 medal events at the velodrome, Team GB won one gold, three silver and four bronze medals. While they came away empty-handed in the BMX events, which had been one of their strengths in Tokyo, other highlights included Tom Pidcock’s thrilling defence of his Olympic mountain bike title and Anna Henderson’s surprise silver medal in the women’s time trial.
In terms of results, this season is probably more of a lull than a dramatic downturn, but in fact this is the lowest number of gold medals in cycling since Dave Brailsford’s first Olympic cycle in 2004, when the British team first made its mark with two gold medals at the Athens Velodrome.
From the high point in London, when Team GB won eight gold medals, through Rio to the postponed Tokyo Games, where six gold medals were won in the cycling disciplines, the final tally from Paris also shows how much ground the rivals have made up.
Performance Director Stephen Park remained optimistic after the running events were over, saying: “If you achieve more than 50% of your realistic medal chances at all of the Games, then you have an above-average stroke performance.”
Neah Evans, who competed in the women’s omnium in the final round, perhaps summed it up best. “Today there were two options,” she said. “Either you get a medal or you fall.”
Such was her fate on the final lap of the scratch race after colliding with Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and also with Jack Carlin, who was going all out to take bronze in the men’s keirin. Like others before her, Evans fought back and competed again in the third event, the elimination race, but her interest quickly waned after she lost the pace.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Finucane’s campaign was how well her temperament suited the week-long hustle and bustle at the Paris Velodrome. “I just hope I inspire young people to get on their bikes and give it a go, because it’s really cool,” she said. “I would love for women to just join in, and track sprinting is a really cool sport.”
However, Finucane admitted that her concentration had been “up and down”: “When I’m in that velodrome, I’m fully committed and I hope I proved that today. I wasn’t crying because of the pressure. I was crying because I was exhausted.”
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“My mind was telling me things like, ‘You can’t do this.’ I’ve handled the pressure pretty well this week. It’s more my internal pressure, how I wanted to deliver, my legs screaming and telling me to stop. I wanted to keep going. There were a lot of emotions.”
In the first head-to-head of the sprint semi-finals, Finucane lost to eventual champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand. In the second run, she was under pressure to stay in the race and led for most of the race, but ultimately could not resist Andrews’ acceleration and had to battle Hetty van de Wouw for bronze.
It was a one-sided contest and the 21-year-old from Carmarthen took her third podium finish in seven days. Three medals on her Olympic debut is an excellent achievement and there is no doubt that Finucane will be among those heading to Los Angeles with even more ambition.
The resilient Carlin won his semi-final comfortably and moved into the Keirin final, where he again faced the seemingly invincible Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen.
In his semi-final, Hamish Turnbull fell down the embankment while trying to avoid the falling German Luca Spiegel and limped off the track, his racing suit torn over his shoulders. Things got even worse for Carlin in the final when he was involved in an accident in the final meters and ended up lying in a crumpled heap at the end of the track. This ended his last hope of a medal.
“You have to accept that because of the level of competition, you’re going to miss some opportunities,” Park said. “And some are just going to slip through your fingers.”
“The running program here was incredible. Coming home with 11 medals, [in cycling]to emerge as the best nation, to have won the 1,000th medal [for Team GB]The fact that Emma won three medals – the first woman to do so in 60 years – and was competitive in every single discipline is, in my opinion, a great result both here and for the future.”
