There’s a step in Katie Archibald’s garden that makes her flinch each time she sets foot on it. “I do feel a bit sick, because I’ve got to go out the same step like every day,” she says. “This is so pathetic, but pretty much every day, I hold onto the handle and take a big, really slow step. It’s just any other step, but I just can’t get my head around how inconsequential an action it was, for such a consequential outcome.”
The inconsequential action she’s talking about came in June this year. One early summer’s day, Archibald walked out into her garden and tripped on the step that now haunts her. The fall was detrimental. She dislocated her ankle, broke her tibia and fibula, and tore two ligaments off the bone. On top of the injury list, the fall ruled out her hopes of going to the Paris Olympics, where she was targeting the Omnium, Madison and team pursuit, with realistic gold medal chances in all three events.
