Emma Finucane took her third medal of the Paris Olympics in the women’s individual sprint in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, as Team GB’s cyclists fell well short of the gold medal tally of the Tokyo Games.
Despite being at her first Olympics, Finucane has been the linchpin of seven days of track racing, winning gold in the team sprint on day one, bronze in the keirin and, on the final day, bronze in the individual sprint. Her achievement made her the first British woman in 60 years to win a hat-trick of medals in a single Olympic Games, since Mary Rand’s gold, silver and bronze in 1964.
“Honestly, it’s just like a dream,” the 21-year-old Finucane said after the sprint finals. “Obviously, I would have loved to win that gold medal, but gold and two bronzes is more than I could have dreamed of. This week has been such a rollercoaster.
“I’ve cried. I’ve had happy tears. I’ve been exhausted and to get up every day and keep fighting I’m just really proud of myself. I just can’t believe it’s over.”
In the 12 medal events in the velodrome, Team GB won one gold, three silver and four bronze medals. While they drew a blank in the BMX events, which had been one of the strengths in Tokyo, Tom Pidcock’s thrilling defence of his Olympic mountain biking title and Anna Henderson’s surprise silver in the women’s time trial were other highlights.
In terms of results, this campaign will perhaps be best seen as a lull, rather than a dramatic downturn. The reality, however, is that this is the lowest number of cycling gold medals since Dave Brailsford’s first Olympic cycle in 2004, when Team GB first announced themselves in the Athens velodrome with two gold medals.
Since the peak performance in London, when Team GB claimed eight gold medals, to Rio and the delayed Tokyo Games, in which six gold medals were won in the cycling disciplines, the final tally from Paris also reveals how much ground has been made up by rivals.
The performance director, Stephen Park, remained bullish as the track events ended, saying: “If you can hit more than 50% of your realistic medal chances, at any Games, then you are batting above average.”
Neah Evans, competing in the women’s omnium in the final session, perhaps summed it up best. “Today’s gone one of two ways,” she said. “You either get a medal, or you crash.”
That was her fate, in the final lap of the scratch race after touching wheels with Lotte Kopecky, of Belgium, and also Jack Carlin’s, as he stretched every sinew to claim bronze in the men’s keirin. Like others before her, Evans fought back and was racing again in the third event, the elimination race, but her interest ended quickly after she fell off the pace.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Finucane’s campaign was how well her temperament proved suited to the week-long hothouse of the Paris velodrome. “I just hope I’m inspiring young kids to get on their bike and give it a go, because it’s really cool,” she said. “I’d love women to just get involved and track sprinting is a really cool sport.”
Finucane admitted her focus had been “up and down”, however: “When I am in this velodrome, I am on it, and hopefully I have proved that today. I wasn’t actually crying at the pressure. I was crying because I was exhausted.
“My mind was telling me things like: ‘You can’t do it.’ The pressure, I have dealt with it pretty well this week. It is more my internal pressure, how I wanted to deliver myself, my legs screaming, telling me to stop. I wanted to keep going. It has been many emotions.”
In the first of the sprint semi‑final head-to-heads, Finucane was comfortably beaten by the eventual champion, Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand. Under pressure in the second heat to stay in the competition, Finucane led for most of the race but ultimately could not resist Andrews’ acceleration and was left to race for bronze, against Hetty van de Wouw.
That proved a one-sided contest and the 21-year-old from Carmarthen took her third podium finish in seven days. Three medals in her debut Olympics represents a stellar return, and there is no doubt that Finucane will be among those going forward to Los Angeles with added ambition.
The resilient Carlin comfortably won his semi-final and progressed to a keirin final in which he would again face the seemingly invincible Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands.
In his semi-final, Hamish Turnbull, trying to avoid the falling Luca Spiegel of Germany, tumbled down the banking and limped off the track, his skinsuit ripped across his shoulders. Worse followed for Carlin in the final, when he was caught in a crash in the final metres and left in a crumpled heap at the base of the track, his last medal hope gone.
“You’ve got to accept, just because of the level of competition, that you are going to leave some on the table,” Park said. “And some are just going to elude you.
“The track programme here has been incredible. To come away with 11 medals [in cycling], to come away as the top nation, to have won the 1,000th medal [for Team GB], to have Emma win three medals – the first woman to do that in 60 years – and to be competitive in every single event, is I think both a great outcome for here, but also for the future.”
