Click here to view this content.
Dame Sarah Storey claimed her 18th Paralympic gold medal on Wednesday but criticised the women’s C5 time trial event and said the short course was “appalling”.
Great Britain’s most successful paralympian, 46, beat home hope Heidi Gaugain – 27 years her junior – having trailed by more than seven seconds after 5.8km of the 14.1km course in the eastern suburbs of Clichy-sous-bois.
The men’s C5 event, which takes place on Wednesday afternoon, is double the distance, comprising two laps of the same course. Storey is one of 13 British riders in road time trials on Wednesday, with team-mate Fran Brown winning silver in the women’s C1-3.
“This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had,” Storey said, after completing the course in 20 minutes and 22.15 seconds, 4.69 secs ahead of her French rival. “And I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase para-sport in the way that you want to.
“So I hope this is the only time it’s less than 20k. But I really hope that they never do this to the women again because I think it’s been appalling.”
It is understood organisers opted to hold some time trials over the shorter distance because of a busy schedule on Wednesday that includes 19 races, in addition to medal ceremonies.
“You’ll have to ask the organisers,” Storey added. “But there’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it in para-cycling is a real disappointment. I’ve had to put that disappointment aside and just concentrate on what I can control because I couldn’t control the race distance.
“You look back to that incredible course in Beijing, Brands Hatch and all the fans, Rio, although it was flat, it was longer. And then Tokyo, we had the motor circuit and no-one there anyway. But we had three laps there and it was a real challenge. So I think this is the most disappointing in that sense, after what came before it. And I hope it’s something that doesn’t happen again.”
At the ninth Games of a remarkable career which started in the swimming pool at Barcelona in 1992, Storey further cemented her legacy as husband Barney and children Louisa and Charlie watched on. Storey’s victory maintained her 100 per cent Games record on the bike, which began at Beijing in 2008 and now spans 13 races, to take her overall Paralympic medal tally to 29, including 16 in the pool.
Storey said she could also go on to Los Angeles in 2028.
“Of course I could. But we’ve got to do the road race on Friday and the World Championships first, so we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,” she added.
Storey has always been outspoken in championing the Paralympic movement, and addressed the furore that overshadowed the start of the Paralympics when Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was left to “crawl” off a train late in the evening at King’s Cross in London.
“Without a doubt, and I think I said this before London, we were expecting too much of a Paralympics to change society in one fell swoop. And we didn’t. And Tanni’s situation the other day showed that,” she said.
“It is great to have the sporting legacy, and you can see that in the 31 gold medals that the team has got, but the legacy for society is still the thing we have to work on.
“If you provide the opportunities for people with disabilities to thrive, that’s the example, isn’t it? So you take this example, this is a sporting situation. We’ve been given our opportunities to thrive, and we do. If you give every disabled person the opportunity to thrive, they will, it’s a metaphor for what could happen in the rest of society. So we have to make those translations.”
Matthew Robertson came fifth in the men’s C2 event and Daphne Schrager finished fifth behind Brown in the women’s C1-3.
On the short course, Brown said: “I would have liked a bit of a longer course as well, we are capable of riding a bit further.”
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
