From biking disaster to more cycling glory
KATIE ARCHIBALD’S Olympic dream might have ended on a Cheshire road back in January.
The Team GB cyclist lost control of her Triumph Thruxton Ace motorbike as she took a bend and crashed over a grass verge. She ended up with a ruptured cruciate ligament and a broken elbow.
She missed the Track World Championships in London in March, but the 22- year- old with the tattoos and extravagantly dyed hair is fighting fit for Rio – if a little embarrassed about her spill.
“We’d been away for two weeks at a camp and I’d kept the bike at a friend’s garage,” Katie said.
“I collected it, jumped on and went through a muddy puddle along this country road.
“It was wet when I went into a corner and the rear wheel slipped. I hold my hands up and say it was inexperience. I over-corrected and went over a grass verge.
“My immediate concern wasn’t the Olympics or the World Championships, it was that we had the Hong Kong World Cup a month later.
“To be honest I didn’t think anything was wrong. I got up – maybe it was the adrenaline – but I couldn’t feel anything.
“I was walking like a rag doll but I just felt the feeling would come back.
“The most annoying thing was that the rear foot peg and the front brake cable had both snapped so there was no way of getting home safely.
“I had to wait for the breakdown people and they said it would be a couple of hours so I sat there reading a book.
“I phoned British Cycling to say I’d come off my bike – but that I was pretty sure I was alright, I’d see the physio tomorrow and I’d be tip-top for training.
“Unfortunately I was wrong. After three hours of waiting my whole body was seizing up. I don’t know what hurt most, my injuries or the feeling that I’d been forgotten.”
Katie reported to the physio the following day, was taken to hospital and the real damage was revealed.
“I made a perfect recovery,” she says. “We have an amazing physio team and there were no setbacks. Now I’m just looking forward to my first Olympics.
“I wasn’t very athletic when the girls won their golds in London. I was a couch potato, competing as an amateur and doing part-time tele-sales, sitting down all day!
“Then I won bronze in the individual pursuit in the 2013 British National Championships, which meant I put my hand up to British Cycling saying: ‘I’m here’.
“I got a trial to go to the European Championships and won a gold in the team pursuit. I spent the next couple of months elbowing them in the ribs to see if I could get on the programme.
“In November that year I moved to Manchester and started training full-time.
“The following year I became the first female Scot to win a cycling gold in the World Championships. I also set the Scottish individual pursuit record.
“We’re always asked if we can get gold in Rio and I always say we can. We’re definitely going to be competitive.”