Pendleton vows to win Beijing Olympic gold
21/7/2008 17:17
After becoming the first British woman to win the world sprint title in
Los Angeles in 2005, track cyclist Victoria Pendleton, 27, has quite a
collection of golds, including five in the 2007 and 2008 World Track
Championships.
Now the most important target of the Queen of Track Sprinting,
the title given by her fans, is to win an Olympic gold next month in
Beijing.
"To be the best at something. It's all that I have ever wanted since
I was a child, to be really good at something, better than everyone else, and
this is my opportunity," Pendleton said earlier.
Born in Stotfold,
Bedfordshire, she rode her first race, a 400m event on the grass track at
Fordham at the age of 9. Pendleton showed her promise at the age of 13 and was
spotted three years later by the assistant national track coach, Marshal
Thomas.
At that time she wanted to concentrate on her education, and was
later awarded with a degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Northumbria
University, Newcastle upon Tyne.
At the 2005 World Championships, Pendleton
won her first major medal with a gold in the women's sprint. She became the
third British woman to become a cycling world champion in 40 years. At the 2006
Commonwealth Games, she won a silver in the 500m time trial and a gold in the
sprint in Melbourne.
At the 2007 UCI (International Cycling Union) Track
World Championships, she won the women's team sprint with Shanaze Reade, the
individual gold in the sprint, and a third gold in the Keirin.
She crowned
this fantastic year off by being named the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year
for 2007, becoming the only cyclist to win the award in its 20-year
history.
Pendleton was also voted Sports Journalists' Association of
Britain's Sportswoman of the Year for 2007.
Helping her to win those stripes
back are numerous people including national sprint coach Iain Dyer, consultant
coach and former German star Jan van Eijden and in the gym Mark Simpson of the
EIS.
Jan Van Eijden, the former world sprint champion has impressed upon
Pendleton that the winner is not always the rider who makes the best moves, but
the one who makes the fewest mistakes.
"Mark has been in control of my
strength and conditioning program for over a year now. Before him we had someone
come in part time but now I have full time one to one coaching, looking at every
lift I do, and that has helped a lot in my improvements," said
Pendleton.
"We're also getting a lot of data coming from the track too thanks
to Scott in the EIS and we're hoping to use these to see the relationships
between gym and the data on the track and its going to be an important part of
our preparation for Beijing."
Now the slightly-built sprinter has cancelled
all media engagements over the last months to concentrate on her busy schedule
for the Beijing Olympic Games.
It's the sprint race in Beijing, the only
Olympic cycling sprint event that will define her sporting year.
She is
believed a strong favourite for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after having
considered retirement from the sport due to her disastrous 2004 Summer Olympics
where she finished 6th in the time trial and 9th in the 200m sprint.
Her
build-up to the Beijing Olympics has been boosted by two gold medals at the 2008
UCI Track World Championships where she won the women's sprint, and the women's
team sprint. She was also second in the women's keirin.
Women's sprint
competition is expected to be really difficult for anyone wanting to win it. The
times from the top girls are now very close and there are at least half a dozen
riders capable of taking the rainbow jersey home including Pendleton.
As seen
in many a World Championship though, the fastest rider in qualifying is not
always the winner of the title and tactics play a big part. And the British team
are also making moves to help better prepare their riders for that side of the
event.
When talking about the Beijing Olympic Games, Pendleton said, "There's
not a lot I can do about it. All I can do is preparing as well as I can.
"I
am looking towards Beijing in a whole different way. I want to make the most of
it and enjoy being part of the whole Olympic experience, because I didn't do
that in Athens," Pendleton added.
Xinhua
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