Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain - 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Women's Cycling Gold Medalist | iHaveNet

"It's Something Completely Special"

Women's sprint cycling gold medalist Victoria Pendleton says she would not have won in Beijing had she not missed out in Athens four years ago in 2004.

The 27-year-old explains that without the disappointment of not placing in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, she wouldn’t necessarily have modified her training program for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Victoria Pendleton defeated Anna Meares of Australia to earn her Olympic gold medal in the women's cycling sprint finals.

Victoria Pendleton Interview on Winning the Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

Q: How are you feeling?

To be honest for me it didn’t really feel real, it’s something you imagine in your dreams that one day you’ll be doing that. Every athlete’s hope is to be listening to their anthem on top of the podium so when it actually happens it was all a bit surreal.

Q: You also competed in Athens but didn’t win.

I think that without the disappointment of Athens I wouldn’t necessarily have made the change and the step forward in my career.

It was hugely disappointing and I was ready to give up and after that year I really kind of changed my training program, I tried to approach it in a different way and the following year I was World Champion and since then I have maintained that position in the world rankings and I think now I feel like a different athlete.

Q: Looking forward to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, will you compete ?

Well I’m hoping in 2012 they will bring in another women’s event and hopefully a women’s sprint event because there is only one sprint event for women’s and two endurance events so fingers crossed there will be a women’s sprint event and Shanaze Reade can get up and do that with me.

Q: Team Great Britain is giving an amazing performance in cycling.

We absolutely stormed the cycle rankings so there is not another nation anywhere near us so it’s nice to know that we are the best in the world, and we are not just the best in the world, but we are by far the best in the world!

Q: How does it feel to win gold?

Can you put that into words? I don’t think you can, I don’t think there are many things in the world for an athlete that would come close to that feeling. It’s something completely special, completely different.

Q: You won Olympic record, tell me about it?

Well actually I was hoping to get close to the world record, my times during the week leading up to the competition were very strong and I was actually well ahead of record schedule, but unfortunately it was quite cold in the morning and the temperature makes a huge difference on track times.

I got an Olympic record I have to be happy with that but its something else to aim for.

 

 

About Victoria Pendleton

Victoria Pendleton arrived on the cycling sprinting scene in 2001, with four silver medals in national championships. In 2002 she completed her university studies to concentrate full-time on her cycling for the first time.

Much to her surprise she qualified easily for England's Commonwealth Games team where she rode with distinction in the Sprint, making the last four.

Based at the World Cycling Centre sprint school with Ross Edgar in 2003, she had a fantastic end to her season, showing herself to be one of the very best up and coming female sprinters in the world. She narrowly missed out on a medal the World Championships in Stutgart in the sprint, finishing fourth and looking well worth a medal.

She then joined the exclusive sub 35 second club in finishing seventh in the 500m Time Trial. National records were also set in both the 500m Time Trial and 200m Sprint qualifying Time Trial. She then destroyed the opposition in winning the National Sprint, 500m Time Trial and Scratch Race titles.

In 2004 she was selected for the Athens Games and finihsed sixth in the Time Trial and 9th in the 200m Sprint.

However, a year later she finally made the breakthrough that she had promised for so long with a gold medal in the World Championships in Los Angeles in the Sprint event. She followed that up in 2006 with another gold (Sprint) and silver (Time Trial) at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Victoria Pendleton saved best preformance for the 2007 World Championships. She swept all three events with gold medals in the Team Sprint, Sprint and Keirin. Her performance in 2007 made her the heavy favorite for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

About Track Cycling

Track cycling is an incredibly specialised indoor event, with a number of disciplines that place as much emphasis on strategy and subtle technique as on physical fitness, power and stamina.

Races take place on an indoor velodrome - a 250 to 300m wooden oval, with straights banked at 12 degrees and the corners banked at a steep 42 degree angle. The bikes and equipment used by the riders are also highly specialised, and bear little semblance to road-going machinery.

Events include short-distance sprints, time trials and long-distance endurance races for both teams and individuals. Depending on the discipline, the result is judged by time, by victory over an opponent, or by completion of a distance.

 

 

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics
Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain - Women's Cycling Gold Medalist