Cycling news - Sir Chris Hoy and Joanna Rowsell Shand on a memorable London 2012 Olympics
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ByEurosport
Updated 25/05/2020 at 07:08 GMT
Team GB's team sprint gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and team pursuit gold medallist Joanna Rowsell Shand reflect on a memorable home Olympics in 2012.
Sir Chris Hoy is Britain's joint most successful Olympian (Stephen Pond/PA)
Image credit: PA Sport
Join Chris and Jo at 4pm today on Eurosport 2 as they relive a stellar London 2012 in the velodrome for Team GB. At 2pm, meanwhile, Bradley Wiggins and Lizzie Deignan join Orla Chennaoui to discuss GB's performances on the road...
What were your expectations coming in to the 2012 Games?
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#Returnto2012 - Hoy secures emotional record sixth gold in the keirin
Hoy: "I was coming towards the end of my career, I was 36 in London and it was just a question of if I could hang on long enough to make it to the 2012 Games, and it was a difficult time between Beijing and London, I had defeats, I had crashes and even selection issues, I had Jason Kenny, my pesky teammate who came out of nowhere when he was 20 and he shot to the top of the world and we had a fantastic battle both in training and in competition to get to London.
"We both quite rightly got an event each, he had the Sprint and I had the Keirin and we teamed up with Phillip Hinds for the Team Sprint. As time passes now and you reflect, you realise just what a special time it was.
"I think we all recognised at the time how special it was going to be, having a home Olympics, not many athletes get that opportunity, but the way the cycling team had the success in Beijing, it added expectation but it was a summer I will never forget."
Rowsell Shand: "Our target was definitely to win, I think I had a very different experience to Chris as I hadn’t been to another Olympics, I didn’t have that level of scrutiny from the media, the sort of pressure and expectation externally because on the global stage, I was still an unknown name, in that sense.
"In the world of cycling, we’d already won three world titles in the Team Pursuit, we were the current World Cup winners, world champions and world record holders going in to London so all we wanted was gold, we would’ve been disappointed with silver. I do look back and realise the amount of pressure I put on myself was huge, but the guys that had done Beijing and were reigning champions, that I think was far harder because I felt that in Rio."
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Rowsell Shand: All we wanted was gold
Hoy: "I think what Jo says is absolutely spot on, most of the pressure you feel as an athlete is from yourself, it’s not just from the media, from the public, it’s your own expectations, it’s because you put so much in to it, it’s because you want it so much, it was about managing that expectations.
"For me, it was leaning on Steve Peters, our team psychologist, he was absolutely instrumental in my success throughout my whole career really.
"Working with Steve helped me understand a bit of perspective and realise that I was coming towards the end of my career, nothing was going to change if I didn’t win a gold medal, the world wasn’t going to stop, he tried to drum in to us all that we had to enjoy this moment, this was a once in a lifetime chance.
"If you go through it and you take on all that stress and you worry about failing or it going wrong, it really overwhelms you.
"So I really tried to focus on the opportunity, people thought that being the flag bearer might add excess pressure, but I remember that moment, for me, it was such an overwhelming moment and I remember thinking at that split second, the four years of hard work, the ups and downs, was all worth it just to carry that flag and lead your team in.
So I guess, that took the pressure off for me, I have had this moment now, what comes beyond this is just an added bonus."
Watching Chris Hoy win that gold medal, it must have been such a boost for Team GB, to see that gold medal...
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Britain's Chris Hoy celebrates after their track cycling men's team sprint finals at the Velodrome during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 2, 2012. Team Britain set a new Olympic record of 42.600 seconds in the final.
Image credit: Reuters
Rowsell Shand: "It really was, I was with Laura who at the time was going out with Jason Kenny, she is now married to Jason but at the time they were dating, so a huge excitement for her but a huge excitement for us all sat in the village, sat in our apartment in the village, we were not far from the velodrome, you couldn’t see it from our apartment but it was very close by.
"Watching others win a gold medal sort of gives you faith that the process is working, we’ve all been at the same holding camp, we were all part of this team and you think, this process has worked, everyone has come together, all the staff and all the riders and won this medal.
This wasn’t a banker medal, so I think it was cause for more excitement for us, thinking if they can do it, we can definitely pull it off as well.
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Chris Hoy: You realise now just how special London 2012 was
The whole team must’ve been buzzing after the men’s team pursuit victory?
Hoy: "It was one of the biggest events that the cycling world was looking forward to seeing, this old rivalry, the Aussies vs the Brits and normally it’s 1/10th or 2/10th of a second that separates them, but in the end, it was a fairly significant margin and to break the world record, all the old clichés come out about the roof coming off the velodrome, but it was so loud in there."
Rowsell Shand: "That was our qualifying day, so we were really having to focus on qualification and I almost think of all the races you have to do as a team pursuiter, qualifying is the most nerve racking one. So to see them pull it off in the final, it put it in to perspective, this is what we can do if we absolutely nail our process, I was over the moon for them. It’s really funny looking at it back now because it all looks a little bit different.
"It was a stunning ride, it’s what the crowd wanting to see, it’s what everyone has got those tickets for and I was just so proud of them for delivering that ride, with all that pressure."
Victoria Pendleton showed so much emotion on the Keirin podium, how much of that emotion was joy and how much of that was relief?
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Victoria Pendleton celebrates her keirin gold medal
Image credit: Reuters
Hoy: "I think 50/50 for her, it was certainly one of the least predictable events, the Keirin is by its nature a really tricky one to predict.
"She was hot favourite for the team sprint, she was hot favourite for the individual sprint, this was her least strong event, I think Anna Mears was the favourite and she rode with confidence throughout, but she just couldn’t react when Vicky made her move with a lap and half to go, she just kicked with such force, it was incredible.
"The crowd were pushing her round the whole way, and you could see what it meant to her when she finally got on the podium and I think at least she had that gold medal, she wasn’t going to win the three gold medals like she’d hope to, but this was relief and joy at the same time."
Where does that evening you won the gold medal rank in your achievements Joanna?
Rowsell Shand: "Definitely well up there! I think I knew in that moment that nothing was ever really going to top that. It was my first Olympics so I was full of excitement and no real pressure on my shoulders except what I put on myself. It was all a new experience, all an absolutely amazing experience with it being a home Games, with it being the first time the women’s team pursuit had been in so I was quite aware this was quite a special moment for women’s sport in general.
"At the previous games, there had been seven events for men and only three for women, by London it was equal, five events for each, so it was quite special to be a part of that.
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#Returnto2012 – Trott, King and Rowsell break world record again to win team pursuit
"It was a really overwhelming feeling, building up to the Olympics, all my work with Steve Peters was that I had to treat it as just another bike race, which essentially it is, but when you finish and you hear the noise from the crowd, you realise that this isn’t just another bike race, it is not on the same scale at all as anything else I have ever done, or likely will ever do.
"It’s actually quite weird now looking back at it, because in a sense it feels like forever ago but in another sense, the memories come flooding back and it feels like yesterday."
How did you celebrate afterwards?
Rowsell Shand: "That night, myself and Dani took ourselves to McDonalds in the Olympic village. Laura had another event coming up so she had to sort of go and warm down, do her recovery and be quite serious. Dani and I had no events to go, we got whisked off and did all the media rounds, various different media outlets, so we sort of spent all evening doing that.
We met up with our families relatively briefly at Team GB house and then everyone had to go and get trains to wherever they were staying, and we were left to walk back to our accommodation, and we thought we’d treat ourselves to a McDonalds. It was a little bit of a let down to be honest! I was really looking forward to it.
HOW TO WATCH #RETURNTO2012
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#Returnto2012 - Looking back on an iconic opening ceremony
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Monday 25th May (2pm and 4pm) will focus on cycling with Sir Bradley Wiggins and Lizzie Deignan discussing road cycling before six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and Jo Rowsell review the unprecedented Team GB successes in the velodrome.
Tuesday 26th May (2pm, replayed at 7pm) will see Tom Daley join the team to review his medal-winning performance in diving whilst Adam Peaty – ear-marked as a future prospect back in 2012 - and double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington will reflect on the big stories of the Games from the pool.
Wednesday 27th May (2pm, replayed at 7pm) will feature gymnasts Max Whitlock, Beth Tweddle and Kristian Thomas looking back on a Games that saw Team GB secure four medals for the first time in a single Olympics and kick-start a golden era for the sport in the UK.
Thursday 28th May (2pm, replayed at 7pm) will see rower Helen Glover, winner of the first Team GB gold of the Games, as well as five-time Olympic medallist Kath Grainger and Men’s Eight medallist Greg Searle, discussing the memorable moments from Eton Dorney.
Friday 29th May (2pm, replayed at 7pm) focuses on combat sports with boxing star Anthony Agogo discussing his and Team GB’s impressive performances in the ring, whilst medal-winning pair Jade Jones and Gemma Gibbons reflect on their taekwondo and judo successes respectively.
Saturday 30th May (2pm, replayed at 7pm) will give viewers the chance to relive the iconic night of the games – known ever since as Super Saturday. On a memorable night at the Olympic Stadium, Team GB secured three gold medals with Greg Rutherford, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Sir Mo Farah all topping the podium. Greg and Mo will look back on the historic evening and discuss some of the other seminal moments. Seb Coe and Tony Minichiello also join the chat.
Sunday 31st May (midnight) will see the week come to a close with Boyle’s equally impressive Closing Ceremony to book-end a celebratory period in the country’s sporting history.
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