LAUR A TROTT WOMAN OF THE YEAR

With her outstanding victories at Rio, this record-breaking Olympic cyclist has captured the hearts of the nation. By Sasha Slater

Winning two golds in Rio to add to the pair she bagged in London in 2012, Laura Trott was the undisputed queen of the British team, the most successful female Olympian these islands have ever produced.

Astonishingly, though, she says that at the time, she had no idea of the scale of her achievement. For those of us who watched the GB athletes as they rode, ran, sailed and dived to glory, the experience in the stadium was overwhelming; our throats were hoarse and our ears rang from cheering on our heroic squad. But for Trott, the experience was different: ‘When you’re out there in Rio, you don’t actually know that anyone back here cares about the Games, but when you come back, you go, “Whoa! We’re everywhere!”’ At the time, she was far too busy mastering the team pursuit and the complexities of the omnium, a six-part competition in which participants race against one another and against the clock (the race baffled JK Rowling, who, after watching it, tweeted: ‘Don’t you dare tell me Quidditch is hard to understand’). Trott, fortunately, knew exactly what she was doing.

What is all the more extraordinary about Trott’s story is that she was born prematurely with a collapsed lung and suffered from asthma as a child. Her doctors urged her parents to get her interested in sport in order to build up strength; she had to give up trampolining, her first love, because of breathing difficulties. Even today, Trott, small and slim with a great wave of blonde hair, looks almost too fragile for her gruelling sport. Her rise to world-beating cyclist is a story of pure grit and of the inspiration provided both by her mother, who transformed her physique through cycling, and by Kelly Holmes. ‘I remember watching her compete, and getting her two Olympic golds,’ she says with a reminiscent smile. ‘I remember feeling how incredible it was and seeing her shock at the result. It was a moment that showed me how important training is and how it means things can go to plan and come together.’ At the time, Holmes was the most successful female Olympian – but her achievement has been bested.

Now, Trott is looking forward to married life with her new husband and fellow cycling champion Jason Kenny. Between them, the couple have 10 Olympic gold medals; a joke suggestion that they should turn them into the numerals of a giant clock is almost a reality. ‘I’ve got the hands and the dials,’ says Trott. ‘And Jason’s going to make it, but we’ll have to leave two of the numbers blank until we get to Tokyo.’ There, she appears to have little doubt that the Olympic velodrome will once again resound with the stirring notes of the national anthem; and nor, indeed, do the rest of us.