Two housemates, one medal . . . and Holland takes it
WHAT else could Vicky Holland say? She had just beaten her best friend and housemate to an Olympic bronze medal, sitting on her shoulder for the bulk of the concluding 10km run of the women’s triathlon before out-sprinting her to the line.
Holland threw her arms in the air and then dropped to her knees, only to then look across to where Non Stanford had rolled into a ball on the same blue carpet, beaten and broken.
After almost two hours of swimming, cycling and running along Copacabana, three seconds, one place and a whole world of pain divided them. ‘I’m so sorry,’ said Holland. ‘Don’t be silly, congratulations, you were brilliant,’ replied Stanford, and the two then hugged.
Breakfast in the house they share in Leeds may never be the same again. One has achieved a life’s ambition, the other has finished fourth, leaving Holland in a position where even pulling that medal out of a drawer could prove difficult.
Facing a duel for third the moment the gold winner Gwen Jorgensen of the US and the Swiss Nicola Spirig moved clear in the first kilometre of the run, it was
shaping up as a race every bit as uncomfortable as it was on Thursday for the Brownlee brothers they train with. Once the Britons had seen off the challenge of Emma Moffatt of Australia and Chile’s Barbara Riveros, they were locked in a fight for the final medal.
The British triathlon coaches thought Stanford would have enough to pull away. If she failed, however, they figured Holland would probably have the superior finish.
Stanford tried to escape. ‘She pushed on the pace with about a kilometre to go,’ said Holland. ‘But I was still feeling good and I knew then, with a sprint, that I had a chance.’ And she did, possessing enough energy to lift her knees and stride away with Stanford simply powerless to respond. ‘To have to beat your best friend, your training partner, your housemate, is hard,’ she said. ‘But after about 5km of the run I knew it was going to come down to a battle between us for a medal. ‘I wanted both of us to do it, because Non is a huge part of what I do. I moved in with her at the end of 2013 and I’ve become a much better athlete because of it. Half this medal is hers. But I had to think of her as just another competitor. ‘I know she is delighted for me. But I also know she is absolutely gutted because fourth is a horrible position to finish. After she congratulated me I then said I just wanted it for both of us. She may kick me out of the house now though.’
Credit Stanford, 27, the former world champion, for being so gracious in defeat. ‘It’s very bittersweet,’ she admitted. ‘I’m absolutely delighted that Team GB have walked away with a medal today and even more so that it was my housemate.
‘But maybe tactically I played it wrong. I wanted to push it on to make sure we got rid of Barbara, but maybe I pushed too hard and sacrificed my own race. When she went past me I couldn’t fight back. I’m delighted Vicky has got a medal but I’m gutted it wasn’t me.’