WONDER WOMAN
Four-gold Trott is our top female Olympian
LAURA TROTT became Britain’s most successful female Olympian last night as she won the fourth gold medal of her career.
Still only 24, Trott won two golds at London 2012 and has added two more in the team pursuit and omnium in Rio.
Crying with pride, she said: ‘I can’t believe it, I did not expect it. The people that you don’t see really help me — the people who work in the gym, look at our power data and my nutritionist. There are so many of them. To win gold again — I can’t explain how that makes me feel.’
Trott’s fiance Jason Kenny secured a hat-trick of Rio golds after a farcical keirin final. The Brit came close to disqualification before triumphing to secure a record-equalling sixth Olympic gold medal — matching Sir Chris Hoy.
LAURA TROTT had said she rather liked the sound of being Britain’s greatest female Olympian last week and it was typical of this remarkable young woman that a challenge to her status was met with a swift, sensational response.
No sooner had Charlotte Dujardin ridden the dancing Valegro to a third dressage gold on Monday to draw level with Trott than the 24-year-old rode her bike to a fourth Olympic gold, defending the omnium title she won in such style in London four years ago.
She really was quite brilliant over two days here in Rio, dominating the event across the six disciplines with a perfect demonstration of her ability both as an athlete and a bike rider.
Amid the veiled accusations and insinuations that were directed towards British Cycling and the success they have enjoyed in this velodrome, one French rider complained that ‘they’re just walking it’.
That was not true in many cases. Certainly not a male team pursuit quartet that won so narrowly against the Australians.
But Trott did make this look ridiculously easy, even if she normally responds to major physical exertion by vomiting on her return to the Team GB pit. After winning the individual pursuit on the first day of the omnium, with a time superior to that of American world record holder Sarah Hammer, she actually collapsed as well.
That speed, as well as the ability to push herself to her physical limits, makes Trott the outstanding track rider of her generation and all the more impressive because of the speed she somehow generates from such a diminutive frame.
‘The girl from Welwyn Wheelers’ is a phenomenon. She boasts the strongest engine in the British world record-breaking team pursuit quartet but enough power and acceleration to top the rankings in the flying lap as well.
That performance was perhaps her most impressive of the six disciplines, even if her victory in the elimination race represented tactical bike racing at its best.
It was the manner in which she exploded into life coming into the bell; a violent shake of the bike and a sudden surge through the pedals before whipping around this 250 metre oval in a time of just 13.708 seconds. She was three-tenths of a second quicker than she was in London four years ago and a full half a second up on her time at the World Championships in March.
Trott dominated then but not to the extent that she did here, victory in three events and a second place in two leaving her in a hugely commanding position going into the concluding 100-lap points race; 24 points clear of secondplaced Hammer and in a position where she could simply mark her nearest rivals and counter their attacking moves.
It remained a thriller, 100 laps of racing but a contest that Trott somehow managed to navigate with the least amount of fuss.
She was the calm among the chaos — a class apart from the rest.
At times it was just a joy to watch. She followed Hammer and the Belgian in third place, Jolien D’Hoore, for the opening nine laps only to then accelerate past them easily and take some precious sprint points with which to extend her overall lead.
She let them have the second sprint, following them in third. But the ease with which she tracked her main rivals for Olympic gold was impressive all the same.
Never in this sixth and final event did Trott ever look troubled. Indeed there were moments in the race when she looked poised to escape and take a lap, only to hold herself back in the knowledge that she simply did not need to do it.
Such strength rendered Hammer and D’Hoore powerless to do anything other than defend their own positions on the podium while battling it out for who would finish second and third. In the end, Hammer raced away for the final sprint to take her second silver of the Games. All that was left was for Trott to give her customary wave to the crowd, remove her helmet and hug her coaches.
Her success strengthened British Cycling’s position at the summit of the medals table, a fifth gold leaving Team GB just two short of the seven they collected in the velodrome in London in 2012. But it was also a significant addition to her own astonishing haul, four Olympic golds and seven world titles a measure not just of her talent, but also her standing in the sport.
After winning her third gold in the team pursuit last weekend, Trott was charmingly modest about becoming the first British woman to secure more than two.
‘It almost feels like I shouldn’t have achieved it,’ she said, her usual excitable self. ‘I still feel like that young girl down at Welwyn Wheelers. It still feels weird. Incredible.’
Clearly she grew to like it even more, such was her response to Dujardin and that ridiculously clever horse. With Trott there is no additional horsepower; just the power she generates to propel her bicycle to the finish line faster than anyone else who dares take her on.
Becky James claimed her second silver medal of the Games in the women’s sprint as multiple world champion Kristina Vogel of Germany sealed a 2-0 win in the final.
Katy Marchant, James’ team-mate, claimed bronze by beating Elis Ligtlee 2-0 in the race for third.