It is testament to the overwhelming excellence of British cycling that a golden evening for Dame Sarah Storey was not the only headline tale for ParalympicsGB in the Velodrome. By now, it must be a force of habit for the people in charge of the sound system here to hit play on the British national anthem when it comes to the medal ceremonies.
After blowing the competition away during the Olympics, the Paralympians were no less dominant on the track on the first day of competition in Rio, winning three golds in little over an hour. Storey pumped her fists in the air after becoming the most decorated British female Paralympian of all time with a storming performance in the C5 3,000m individual pursuit final, while victories for Megan Giglia in the C1-3 3,000m individual pursuit and Steve Bate and his pilot, Adam Duggleby, in the B 4000m tandem pursuit lifted the GB team to the top of the cycling standings after four events.
This was some statement of intent, an emphatic demonstration of the team’s strength in depth. Giglia claimed ParalympicsGB’s first gold in Rio with a serene ride in her final and the 31-year-old would have dominated the attention on another day given that she took up cycling only after suffering a brain haemorrhage and a stroke three years ago. Bate also has a story to tell. In 2012 he became the first visually impaired person to solo climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a year after he had been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that has robbed him of his peripheral vision.
But the evening belonged to Storey. The veteran shifted the limelight away from the Paralympics newcomers by surpassing Tanni Grey-Thompson’s record of 11 gold medals. Grey-Thompson sat by the side of the track as Storey easily defended her individual pursuit title for the third successive Games, taking less than half the distance to reel in her GB team-mate, Crystal Lane, and win her 12th Paralympics gold.
Storey, who switched from swimming to cycle in Beijing in 2008, is appearing in her seventh Games. She has won 23 Paralympics medals overall and is targeting three more here. The 38-year-old’s passion for cycling and the thrill of competition remains as strong as ever. It is three years since she gave birth to her daughter, Louisa. She has had to work hard to get back to her physical peak.
Lane was happy to settle for silver. Storey beat her in the heats in the morning, breaking her own world record in 3min 31.394sec. The USA’s Samantha Bosco won bronze.
While Storey is a familiar figure on the podium, this was Giglia’s first experience of it. Her giddy expression when she collected her medal was a wonderful sight. Competing on the international stage was not one of Giglia’s ambitions when Storey won two golds in London four years ago.
Determined not to let her condition define her, however, the former PE teacher looked for a sport to take up after being struck down by illness and wondered if she might make a decent cyclist, reasoning that riding a bike might help restore her balance.
It turned out that she was not bad at all. Giglia, a C3 rider, was accepted on to the Paralympic Development Programme in 2014 and won two titles in the Track World Championships this year.
It was clear that becoming a double world champion was not beginner’s luck when she broke a world record in her first Paralympics race, winning her heat in 4min 03.544sec. After watching Alyda Norbruis, a C2 rider from the Netherlands, pip China’s Zeng Sini to bronze, Giglia’s moment arrived.
It was not much of a contest. Giglia completed the first 1,000m in 1min 17.576sec, a faster time than she managed in the heats, and the inevitable was confirmed when she overtook the USA’s Jamie Whitmore with 1,250m of the race left. She has three more events to go.
“I didn’t think I would make it to Rio,” Giglia said. “I thought it was a bit ambitious but I thought I would give it a go.”
Long after his race, Bate could be seen wandering around the track, drinking it all in. Like Giglia, he looked like he could get used to this.
