Laura Trott was happy to make good on a promise to her sister after British cycling’s newest star wrapped up an Olympic double by adding omnium gold to the team pursuit title she’d already won in London.
“I promised her a car if I won both (medals), so there goes the prize money,” joked the 20-year-old after her latest victory at the Velodrome on Tuesday.
“It’s mad. I can’t believe it,” added Trott, who finished just one point in front of the United States’ Sarah Hammer.
The six-discipline omnium was making its debut as track cycling’s answer to athletics muti-events such as the decathlon and heptathlon.
Trott, the world champion, topped the standings at the end of three events on Monday’s first day but trailed Hammer by two points heading into the concluding 500m time trial.
“I was disappointed to finish second in the IP (the individual pursuit) and then I ballsed the scratch race up as well didn’t I?,” said Trott. “I thought ‘it’s all down to the 500m now’.
“I know I’m good at 500s, but you don’t put three places on Sarah Hammer very easily. She’s the strongest rider out there.
“I thought how am I going to do this? I thought I was going to be sick on the start line, which didn’t help matters. But I just got going and the crowd just drove me home. I was so happy.”
In her first Games, victory put Trott in the same company as middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes and swimmer Rebecca Adlington in being one of the few British female athletes to have won two golds at the one Olympic Games.
“I don’t think people talk about me in the same sense as them. I just can’t believe it,” said Trott.
Hammer’s silver was her second in London after the United States finished runners-up in the team pursuit.
