Rio 2016: Katy Marchant’s medal dream is back on track after sprint meltdown almost cost her a place in Team GB for Brazil this summer
KATY MARCHANT is back on track after a sprint meltdown almost cost her a place in Rio.
She and Jess Varnish failed to qualify for the women’s team sprint at the Olympics after finishing fifth at the World Championships in March.
It prompted Varnish to hit out at the coaching set-up when she was dropped from the team — and led to a sexism row which forced technical director Shane Sutton to resign.
But Marchant’s Rio dream is still alive after being named in the individual sprint for Brazil.
And it comes just three years after she was told to get on a bike by the man who coached Jessica Ennis-Hill to Olympic glory.
Marchant, 23, was a talented multi-event athlete and training partner of the Olympic and world heptathlon champion when coach Toni Minichiello spotted her prowess on an exercise bike and contacted British Cycling chiefs.
The Leeds lass is now bidding to follow a path blazed by Rebecca Romero, who switched from rowing to win cycling gold at Beijing 2008.
Marchant said: “After what happened at the World Championships I just took myself away from everything. I went to Dubai for a week’s holiday and it just helped having that break to get some perspective.
“It was hard but I came back with a completely different focus. I worked with a sports psychologist and then sat down with the coaches because I knew I was still in with a really good shout in the individual event.
“Personally, that was always one of my aims anyway.
“It was also easy to switch my focus coming from the heptathlon.
“In the past I had to do one event and within minutes do another. I never struggled with that.
“I never had a problem with Shane and I just got on with the job in hand.
“I’m a strong person. I knew the individual event was still achievable and I took the chance when it was there.
“I don’t have to rely on anyone else in the individual sprint. I just know that when I get on the track, all I have to think about is pedalling that bike as fast as I can. I don’t have another person to factor in.”
Marchant’s progress has been so rapid since taking up the sport that she grabbed a clean sweep of four national titles in the sprints last September. Among those she beat were Varnish and former double world champion Becky James, who is named alongside her in the GB track team.
Marchant said: “I found out I was in the team for Rio when I was with Becky training in Manchester. I still didn’t believe it at first.
“I called my boyfriend and was screaming down the phone. Then I rang my mum and she started crying, which started me off.
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“It was all very surreal. I sometimes forget I’ve only been riding three years now.
“When I switched sports I never envisaged becoming an elite cyclist in time for Rio. It was about seeing how I progressed and realistically I’d set my sights on Tokyo 2020.
“Since last year, when I made the World Championships in Paris as a reserve, I set my sights on Rio and would have been so disappointed had I not been selected. Now I’m so excited.”
THANKS to the help of National Lottery players, Katy Marchant trains full time at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
The centre is famous for its velodrome but also supports other forms of cycling.
It has recently built a new BMX facility — helped by £3million of Lottery funding through Sport England.
Marchant competed at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London in February 2016 — part of UK Sport’s Lottery-funded #Every-RoadtoRio campaign to help bring world-class sport to Great Britain.
Marchant will now be in the athletes’ village along with former training partner Ennis-Hill, who she credits with spurring her on to success in her new career.
She said: “It will be weird. I always looked up to Jess and now I’m going to the Olympics and am part of the same team as her.
“I just want to go out and do myself justice.”