Emma Finucane, the personification of British Cycling’s mantra of “happy head, fast legs”, says she has dreamed of racing in the Olympic Games since she was 10. A decade on, the 21-year-old from Carmarthen will try to lead GB’s women’s team sprint squad to gold when the velodrome action begins and repay the recent comparisons with Victoria Pendleton and Laura Kenny on Monday.
Winner of the women’s individual sprint title at the last world championships in Scotland, and a silver medallist in the team sprint, she was also one of the outstanding performers in this year’s European championships, replicating her performance in the women’s sprint titles.
Finucane’s gold medal in Glasgow last August made her Britain’s first women’s sprint world champion in a decade, but it has been a circuitous journey to becoming a speed specialist.
She began riding at her local velodrome, in Carmarthen, aged eight. “I just loved that it was a sport where you can make friends and it was really inclusive,” Finucane has said. As a young cyclist she raced in cyclocross and on the road, competing in what she called “a bit of everything”.
But she did not start racing on the track until her mid-teens and, even then, primarily in endurance events. “I only really knew what sprinting was at about 14, 15,” she admitted this year, “and that women could do it.”
Winning the BBC’s Welsh sports personality of the year award in 2023 was validation for an athlete who says she’s “really, really proud to be Welsh”.
“Someone showed me a video of Geraint Thomas saying ‘congratulations’ – it was such a crazy moment,” Finucane said. “I didn’t think I’d be on the plaque with names like Gareth Bale and Tanni Grey-Thompson.”
British Cycling’s performance director, Stephen Park, says Finucane has gone from strength to strength since her success in Glasgow last August. “The world championships in 2023 – the moment she became world sprint champion – that was when her inner belief shone through,” Park says.
But there have been some bumps in the road since then. The decision of Kaarle McCulloch, women’s sprint coach until late 2023, to move back to Australia so close to the Paris Games could have proven disruptive. There were tears when McCulloch, a guiding light for Finucane at a crucial moment in her career, left British Cycling but the 21-year-old says that the new coach, Scott Pollock, has dovetailed well with the sprint team.
“It’s hard for anyone to come into a squad and try and change things, but he’s really, really good,” Finucane said in the spring. “I feel like I’ve taken what I’ve learned from Kaarle, and using what I’ve learned with him, we’re working well as a team.”
Park adds: “We brought Kaarle in on her first senior coaching role. It came at a really good time for us because we had athletes – like Emma – who were coming of age and her skills and experience massively helped the confidence of those young women.”
Park acknowledges that the timing of McCulloch’s departure, after the Glasgow world championships, “wasn’t good” but says the transition to working with Pollock, who returned in October, has been smooth.
“They worked hard to be positive about the change,” Park says of the sprint team. “They weren’t pining for the outgoing coach. They embraced the new coach coming in.”
The women’s sprint team will feature Finucane, Sophie Capewell, Katy Marchant and Lowri Thomas. “We can only select two for the keirin and the sprint but they’re progressing well,” Park says. “There’s a bit of internal rivalry but that’s only normal.”
Finucane says her athletic persona is the “shiny version” of herself. In the Olympic bubble, nothing shines brighter than gold and the effervescent Finucane may prove the natural inheritor to Pendleton and Kenny’s mantle of “Queen of the track”.
