Fans’ backlash as Laura’s big sister says: She didn’t work that hard
THERE’S no one like an older sibling to bring you back down to earth.
So while Olympic heroine Laura Trott, 24, was making history by taking her haul of Olympic gold medals to four, her big sister Emma said she had ‘not worked harder than anyone else’.
Her comments yesterday prompted a social media backlash, with critics branding Emma, 26, ‘bitter’ and ‘jealous’.
When asked if she had been gripped by seeing her sister cycling to victory in Rio and ‘hanging on every turn of the wheel’, Emma – who lives in New Zealand – laughed nervously and said: ‘Well... I’m self-employed, so if I don’t work then I make no money, so I went out to work.’
The personal trainer and cycling coach added that she had only been able to catch the race when a client told her: ‘Emma, it’s on the TV,’ but said that it was ‘really special’ and prompted ‘a few tears’.
In the interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Emma, who was a professional cyclist before quitting the sport two years ago, also admitted that Laura had not always been the champion she is today.
She said: ‘The amount of times Laura kicked up a fuss on hills because Dad and I were dropping her, and: “If you don’t slow down I’m going to ring Mum – she can come and pick me up”.
‘I think back to those moments and I think: “How on earth was she the one who made it to be the Olympic champion, you know?” ’
The two sisters were pictured hugging at London 2012 and Laura yesterday leapt to her defence, accusing the Twitter mob of being ‘nasty’ and saying her sister was ‘one of my biggest supporters’.
She tweeted: ‘I love you, Emma Trott, that’s all that matters, right?’
‘I am just her sister! I am not a “hero”, a “celebrity”… She’s been there for me through thick and thin!! She was my idol growing up.
‘Yes she was working while I raced! I’m sure a lot of people who care about me were? I love my sister to the moon, so all u nasty people #shh.’
Emma enjoyed a successful cycling career but left the sport after a personal tragedy, deciding that her passion had slipped.
Emma – who has spent several years living in New Zealand with her partner, Kiwi Olympic cyclist Linda Villumsen – said in 2014: ‘I lost two dear friends of mine, and that changed my perspective on life. I went on a training camp, and I didn’t want to be there, I wanted to get home so badly.
‘I raced, and the feelings weren’t the same as they were five years ago. I’ve been a pro for seven years, I’ve raced for 14, and I’ve enjoyed it. I have no regrets.’
Emma told ITV: ‘Laura’s not worked any harder than anyone else has. Everyone works hard to get to the level the 24 riders were at. But it was the hours of sacrifice not just we made, from not going to school to discos or going out with friends, and the sacrifices Mum and Dad made for us.’
One social media user wrote: ‘Wow, your interview this morning on GMB did sound very bitter! Why not big up your sister?!? #jealous.’
Tom Howarth wrote: ‘Get the violins out for Emma Trott, maybe a crowd funder for a thick blanket? It’s obviously very cold in her sister’s shadow #jealous.’ Others leapt to her defence, with Anne Harvey saying: ‘It’s a sister thing, don’t ever try to come between sisters.’
The sisters’ father Adrian, 56, who is in Rio de Janeiro, said of Emma: ‘The one downside of this experience – the bigger, lippier one wasn’t here with us.’