Now comes the tricky part: the keirin. It is, says Emma Finucane, her favourite discipline, one devoid of the aching nerves she feels in the pit of her stomach on the start line for the sprints.
In the former, she already has Olympic gold; in the latter, she is the favourite on the final day of the Games. The big question mark remains in the keirin itself, a race as much about tactical acumen and experience as the pure power and speed that are a prerequisite.
At just 21, she has not yet had time to master the wily arts of an event that was set up in Japan in the wake of the Second World War to boost its economy. And yet, a gold remains a perfectly conceivable outcome.
Already a world champion prior to these Games, British Cycling’s hierarchy believes a first Olympic track gold has further unleashed any shackles on their new superstar. As she said: “Getting a gold on the first night will obviously give us momentum. This will give us a lot of hope and confidence for the rest of the week. I’m really excited to see what we can do.”
In her case what she is trying to do is a first: aiming to be the first British woman to win three golds at a single Olympic Games.
The two men to have achieved that feat are both here in Paris: Sir Chris Hoy for the BBC and Sir Jason Kenny, now part of Team GB’s coaching set-up. Hoy has made no secret of the fact that he sees Finucane as “the superstar of these Games” inside the Velodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
It is all a far cry from the eight-year-old in the year before Hoy won double gold at London 2012 who turned up at her local track in Carmarthen with pink tassels hanging off her handlebars.
Over the course of two hours this afternoon and evening, Finucane has to get through a quarter-final, semi-final and a ride for gold against athletes far more experienced than herself. Genetically, at least, she has the aptitude for battle. Her great-uncle was Brendan ‘Paddy’ Finucane, who became the youngest wing commander in the RAF and was among the heroes of the Battle of Britain.
She also seems to thrive on pressure, already high but further exacerbated by the withdrawal of the other predicted pre-Games star in Katie Archibald after she broke her leg in a freak accident in her garden.
Amid it all, Finucane seems incredibly calm and already well-versed in the long-established British Cycling mental mantras first brought in by Dr Steve Peters. “I’ve just been dialled in for the team sprint and I just want to take each race as it comes,” she said.
The Finucane clan will again be there in force, with dad Rory and mum Susie having hired a camper van and driven the family down en masse.
Yesterday, the cohort of British riders added to the team gold with a silver in the men’s team pursuit, a 1,000th medal by Britain in Olympic history, and a bronze in the women’s team pursuit.
The women overhauled more than a one-second gap to then comfortably beat the Italians, while the men pushed Australia close before Ethan Hayter was undone by a lengthy stint at the front, fell off his saddle and the bid for gold evaporated.
Hayter, who returns among the favourites for gold in today’s omnium, said: “We were so close and I could see it. I just really gave too much and my whole body went weak. I really struggled to hold myself on the bike in the end.”
Both Hayter and Finucane could end the day with gold. Whatever the outcome, the latter bids to continue doing it “with a smile on my face”.
