Story wins 18th Paralympic gold: As she continued her historic quest for gold after gold on Wednesday morning, Dame Sarah Storey won the women’s C5 time trial, giving her 18th Paralympic win in nine Games. She was angry that the course was only half as long as the men’s, though.
Storey beat Heidi Gaugain of France by 4.69 seconds to win the time trial. At the first stop, which was 5.8 km in, Gauguin was seven seconds behind Storey. But that was the only checkpoint on the whole course, which was only 14.2 km long—half the length of the race that men would run later that same day.
It was the quickest Paralympic time trial ever. “It’s a shame,” she said after the race, “because you don’t get to show off parasport in the way that you want to.” “I’m glad.” I’m so happy. I know there are ways to make things better, though.
“We have all day to do two laps like the men.” And after working so hard to get equal rights for women in cycling, not having them in para cycling after having them at the world championships in Glasgow last year is a heavy blow.
Storey said that before the Games, complaints had been sent to the organizers about the length of the course, but athletes had not been told why the choice had been made.
Storey has won the time trial title at these Games five times in a row. The short course seemed to help her as she easily beat her competitors on the two hills that were crammed into the second half of the course.
She said that she has always been strong. I knew the climbs would be important to make sure you were on the rivet and working as hard as you can. You don’t really need to recover after a race. It is a steep 10, if that makes sense.
“We do a lot of those at home, so I have a lot of chances to practice.” But at finals, you have to race at least 22 km, and I believe that’s what we did at all the other Paralympic Games. You remember that amazing course in Beijing, Brands Hatch, and all the fans. Rio had a flat course that was longer. Then Tokyo, where we had the motor track and no one else. But there were three laps, and it was really hard. In that way, I think this is the most depressing thing that has happened so far. I hope it doesn’t happen again.
Officials are said to have decided to hold some time trials over the shorter distance because Wednesday was going to be a busy day with 19 races and award ceremonies.
