Sarah Storey becomes most successful British Paralympian with 17 Golds

Sarah Storey makes history by winning her 17th Paralympic gold at Tokyo 2020. She is now Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time.

The 43 year old athlete has held the title of the women’s C4-5 road race since London 2012. The win in Tokyo now places her with one more gold than mike Kenny, the previous holder of the record.

Fellow Britain Crystal Lane-Wright took the silver, finishing seven seconds behind Storey.

First and second place also went to the GB men’s team in the C1-3 race as Ben Watson claimed his second gold and Fin Graham won silver.

On her win, Storey says, “I’m a bit overwhelmed, I feel like it’s happening to someone else”. She can’t “explain or compute anything about the race, but crossing the line first felt so good”.

This is Storey’s third gold in this year’s Paralympics, and her 28th medal in total. It is her eighth time competing in the Games, since debuting as a swimmer in 1992 in Barcelona at the age of 14. She began cycling at Beijing 2008, and has won nothing but golds since.

Powering through the weather

Conditions in Tokyo were more like Storey’s home near Manchester, with rain and thick fog impairing visibility at the start. But Storey remained at the front pack throughout, along with Lane-Wright.

Germany’s Kerstin Brachtendorf made a breakaway towards the end of the second lap, clocking a 25 second lead at the checkpoint. At the half way stage of the six laps, she managed to extend her advantage to over a minute. However, Storey led the group chasing behind, with Lane-Wright hot on her wheel. As rainfall became heavier the British duo found themselves unable to reel Brachtendorf in, and after four laps the gap opened up by a further 10 seconds.

But a significant burst and injection of pace from Lane-Wright propelled her to the front of the chasers. This made a huge difference as the pack soon caught up with Brachtendorf. By the end of the penultimate lap five riders were in contention for a medal. At this point, the British pair upped their game, breaking away to open up a comfortable lead as they approached the finish line.

As she crossed the line in two hours, 21 minutes and 51 seconds, Storey gave a celebratory punch in the air.

Almost two minutes after Storey’s win, France’s Marie Patouillet came in to take bronze. Meanwhile, early pace-setter Brachtendorf finished in fifth place.

Immensley proud and grateful

Sarah Storey says that it hasn’t quite sunk in yet, and isn’t quite sure when it will, if it ever does at all. However, since Rio there had been much talk about it being a “mathematical possibility”, given that she is competing in three more events in Tokyo. But she wanted to be careful not to take things for granted. Even knowing she had “the capability to shut down the gap to Kerstin, when your legs don’t feel as good as they have done in the time trial and then the individual pursuit, then you think today is not my day”.

Storey now just feels “immensely proud and also immensely grateful to have so much support and to have such a great team around me and also a great team back at home”. She says it is thanks to everyone else that this is possible, and she couldn’t have done it without them. It is thanks to the people who put her “on the start line in a position to go for it”. The situation has left her “a little bit lost for words in many ways”.

An inspiration

Meanwhile, runner up Lane-Wright’s silver is her third in Tokyo, after finishing second to Storey in all three races. The 35 year old has a total of five Paralympic medals, and hinted at this maybe being her last Games.

Lane-Wright acknowledges the significance of the historic race, saying how she didn’t want to take the opportunity of a record gold away from Storey. She says: “This is part of history now. And I didn’t have the legs, she went so hard. It’s easy for me to now say I gave it to her, but she won that fair and square”.

According to Lane-Wright, there is no denying that Storey is a professional, and “still one of the greatest athletes we will ever have. She is an inspiration, and Lane-Wright finds it an honour to be in the same category and on the same podium as her.

Thank you for reading Sarah Storey becomes most successful British Paralympian with 17 Golds

---