Iconic Dame Sarah Storey storms to 18th gold

Dame Sarah Storey’s 18th Paralympic gold was like none of the others as she claimed time trial victory at Paris 2024.

The 46-year-old struck gold before the croissants went cold in Clichy-sous-Bois to add to her legend as Britain’s greatest Paralympian.

Storey crossed the line 4.69 seconds ahead of French rider Heidi Gaugain to win a first Paralympic gold in front of children Louisa, 11, and Charlie, six, watching on having been given special dispensation to miss the first two days of school.

“I’m utterly delighted,” said Storey. “I just feel so, so proud.

“You race the course that you get and you prepare for that, and I knew well in advance what it was like. To have friends and family here, to see the flags, to have the cheer off the start ramp, it was just brilliant and I’m so pleased.”

Storey made history before she got to the start gate as the first British Paralympian to feature at nine Games.

Racing on a 14.1km course - significantly shorter than the parcours on which she won her other four time trial titles - Storey gave up 7.18 seconds to home favourite Gaugain, sitting in second place after the first 5.8km, a straight and flat section that plunged through Bondy Forest.

She used her strength on 4.5% and 4.7% climbs to catch up and crossed the line for gold in a time of 20 minutes, 22.15 seconds, only 4.69s ahead of the home favourite with Australia’s Alana Forster taking bronze.

“I’ve always been powerful, so I knew that climbs could be quite crucial to make sure I was really on the rivet and pushing as hard as I could,” said Storey.

“You don’t really need to have recovery in a race that’s 20 minutes. It’s a hilly 10km, if you like, we do lots of those at home, so I’ve got lots of practice opportunities.

“I knew I was seven seconds down and that’s not entirely surprising when you think that the first section is downhill and an opportunity to not go full gas. I knew that I had plenty to give up the climbs and over the top, through the wooded area, is false, flat sections where I could really put the power out.”

Meanwhile, Fran Brown won her first Paralympic medal with silver in the C1-3 time trial.

Brown finished fourth as a triathlete on debut at Tokyo 2020 and broke onto the Paralympic podium for the first time as a cyclist in her own right.

Lying third after the opening flat section, she put the hammer down in the second half of the race to leap above Sweden’s Anna Beck with gold going to Maike Hausberger of Germany.

“I’m really chuffed,” said Brown. “I just wanted a medal of any colour and silver is amazing.

“It’s a challenging course, the unexpected little chunk of cobbles through everyone off, and the hills, but it’s nice when you have something different.

“I’m part of a really successful team, I fed off that energy. Everyone else had a medal at this point and I wanted to be a part of that.”