There were ‘I’m not crying, you’re crying’ tears of joy and relief across the Australian track cycling team at the Paris Olympics as the men’s team pursuit squad defeated Great Britain to claim their first Olympic gold medal in the event in 20 years, winning in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome on Wednesday.
Australia’s last gold medal in the Olympic Games came in 2004, and since then, they’ve finished fourth in Beijing, second twice behind Great Britain in London and Rio, then third after a huge crash in qualifying in Tokyo.
Sam Welsford and Kelland O’Brien were both part of the team in Tokyo. Welsford was also part of the Rio squad, along with Tokyo alternate Conor Leahy and newcomer Oliver Bleddyn. They scorched the track, setting a new world record in the preliminary round on Tuesday and then defeating their British rivals for the gold medal in a nail-biter that was only resolved when Britain’s Ethan Hayter slid off his saddle and nearly crashed in the final 500 metres.
Tim Dekker, Australia’s national Track Endurance Coach for timed events, has been with the team since London, with the exception of two years spent on a stint with the Chinese team, and returned last year to the Aussie team. He choked back tears trying to describe how much the gold medal meant.
“This is such a big moment – such a big moment for these boys, and they deserve it. We’ve been to hell and back. For them to make this happen has been amazing. To be a small part of that journey, to help lead them and get them to keep believing it was possible – that’s one of the things that I have prided myself on and never wanted to give up on them.”
Australia was a favourite to win the gold medal in Tokyo but suffered a huge setback when Alex Porter’s 3D-printed handlebars snapped during the qualifying round and ended up third. Coming into Paris, they were largely overlooked behind defending champions Italy, silver medallists Denmark and the ever-present team from Great Britain.
“People forget Tokyo and we were a very strong team there. We got a bronze medal with probably with our third-best lineup,” Dekker said. “The resilience these boys showed in Tokyo and to actually move forward from that and come back and make this happen, it’s high-level history in track endurance.”
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Welsford relished coming into the race as an underdog, saying it worked to their advantage.
“We copped a big blow in Tokyo, but I think that also lit a bit of a fire for us to nail it and really get it right and just come together as a team and do all the things that necessarily we have to do to win,” Welsford said. “We just stuck our heads in the sand and got to work, and that was probably the most important thing for us.
“We kind of kept it under the radar and only really came out for here as our most important race, and I think that was a really good bonus for us. We all knew that we had it in us. When we saw [3:40.730] up on the board yesterday, I think we’re all a bit surprised, but then we backed ourselves.”
Leahy agreed, saying that Great Britain “came in probably as the favourites or definitely to be in the gold final and I don’t think many people would have thought we were.
“We knew we had it in us and we knew that to beat them was going to take the ride of our lives. And I think for now we just soak this moment up and be happy that we won – not just over Great Britain but the whole world really and maybe even in the next couple of weeks we can start to reflect and really soak up what we did.”
Welsford added, “I’m just really stoked to stand here with my brothers and Tim, who’s like family to me and to get a gold medal, not only just for us but for him as well. He’s been here a long time, and he’s ridden the ups and downs that we’ve experienced always in the team.
“He’s always been there for us. And for him to be so heavily invested after what happened in Tokyo, that means a lot to us, too. The bonds you make with your teammates in these scenarios last forever. He was with me on my first Olympics in 2016 where we probably should have won that one. We lost by point seven of a second, and for us to come back and get dealt another bad hand in Tokyo probably hurt [Dekker] a lot more than it maybe hurt us.”
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