Coming into the final straight at the BMX World Championships, Beth Shriever got out of kilter, veered off the track and went down on her left shoulder.
She sat stunned as an innocuous crash just two months out from the Olympics left her grimacing with pain. With an X-ray machine on site — a nod to how many broken bones occur in BMX — she soon learned she had fractured her collarbone.
The first reaction was of upset and worry that she would be denied the chance to defend the Olympic title won so superbly in Tokyo three years earlier.
But within six weeks, she was back riding on the Paris track where she hopes to become a double Olympic champion, starting with tonight’s quarter-finals.
The 25-year-old said: “I knew I’d done something straight away, even with all the adrenaline going on, but my physio was there and able to reassure me there was plenty of time to Paris.
“So, I wasn’t panicky, just a bit upset and gutted initially as I was so excited for the lead-in to the Games. But nothing has really changed.”
Shriever had broken bones in the past, but never the collarbone. That was rapidly mended, the harder part strengthening the tendons and muscles around it. Now back physically 100 per cent, mentally she is boosted by her test runs in Paris on a course that suits her.
“This track definitely plays to my strengths,” she said. “It’s fairly long and flat, a lot of pedalling on the straight and quite technical with a lot of jumping. It suits my riding style. I’ve got to take confidence from that.”
Shriever was one of the iconic images from Tokyo, having won gold moments after Team GB team-mate Kye Whyte had sealed silver in the men’s race. He lifted her aloft in a celebration she will forever cherish.
“It’s still pretty mad,” she said. “Kye didn’t really think about it, he just lifted me up to celebrate. It was a really cool moment and I’ll treasure it for the rest of my life. No one can ever take that away from us. We’re just normal people who showed off our personalities and, hopefully, showed how well we get on as a team.”
While some Olympic champions often struggle to replicate their success after a Games, Shriever has gone on to become a two-time world champion and win European gold.
Explaining the reason for her ongoing dominance, she said: “Tokyo proved to me I can be as good as the older girls are. I never thought I was that good but, as soon as I’d done it once, that was it.”
She argues she is stronger and faster now, but dismisses the idea she has a target on her back as defending champion.
“I don’t feel like I’m defending anything,” she said. “It’s a clean slate. Whoever is best on the day gets gold.”
