Change of Scenery for Sarah Storey at Paralympics
Story posted September 4
By Larry Hickmott
(See Related Links at the bottom of the page for other interviews)
Having completed four Paralympic Games as a swimmer, Sarah Storey, formerly Sarah Bailey, will be starting her fifth Games shortly and it will be her first as a cyclist.
The year has been good to her and after recovering from injury last winter, Sarah was getting in some big rides early on in the year. Early season, she won her first three times trials, placed well in the Cheshire classic (a round of the Women’s National Series no less) and had a good ride in Bilbo (Spain).
Her first major competition was at the 2008 Track World Championships where there were races for the Paralympic athletes and Sarah recorded some very fast times to show everything was on the right track. More racing in able bodied events followed and in one the most impressive of the results, Sarah was just outside of the medals in the National Women’s Circuit Race championship, 4th, and in front of many current internationals.
If ever there was an example of how a Paralympic athlete can compete with able bodied ones, it was this result and many others during the year including the Masters championships on the track. With each event, Sarah has been chipping away at her times and trying to move up a level.
One of her biggest challenges in Beijing is the fact she will be competing against athletes from other categories and as such, a factoring system will be used in her events which may well disadvantage her. On this subject, Sarah says “I put several arguments on the factoring to the IPC but I am not sure they took note of them or if they even looked at them”.
Medals is what Sarah is after in Beijing to add to her already impressive collection.
“The fact we are being factored stinks. I think it is the most ridiculous way of running the Paralympic Games. Not just because it is very disrespectful for the athletes, but it will be also very difficult for anyone to follow and could make us look really stupid.”
“It is though important not to focus on that and I have been focusing on going as fast as I can be. We are looking at targeting a sub 3.40 ride, and its ironic that if I do my target, that I would have ridden against Wendy in the first round of the able bodied Olympics. We are looking at going as fast as we can and the schedules in training have been fantastic. I’m started to really push the boundaries.”
Sarah will be doing a wide variety of events from the 500 metre Time Trial to the road time trial. Her training therefore has been quite varied from doing speed work one day for the 500 to endurance work the next for the road time trial.
“One day I am doing sprints and the next road time trials and really keeping my body guessing” Sarah explained. “Last week I posted my fastest 10 ever with a 22.27 on a not so flat course so the training and focus has been on my own performance which is the way it has got to be. I can’t worry about what anyone else will do.”
A 22 minute 10 is quite something! Just before the Olympics, I went out with Emma Pooley (Olympic Silver medallist) and Sharon Lawson and they did 22 minute 10’s as well and is another example of how good Sarah is going to be have to be to win medals in the Paralympic Games.
The factoring Sarah speaks of has been based on world records as of the first of January. “I am on scratch, the LC2 ride off 89 percent and the CP4 riders ride off 87 per cent in the 500 metres and that changes for the 3k, and again for the road tt so it is a difficult thing to comprehend.”
“We have a spreadsheet and the staff will be feeding figures into it as I’m warming up on the rollers and we just have to see where the start sheet puts me -- off last as the fastest on paper or they may do some other starting routine.”
Watching the Olympics before the Paralympics has been fantastic Sarah says. “What they have done out there has been phenomenal and to emulate that would be amazing. They have done their job and it is now up to us to do what we can do and if doesn’t match what they did but has been our best, then that is all anyone can ask.”
“I would love to be part of that gold medal club. As Victoria Pendleton said on television so very well, you have to be a medallist to be part of this team now. To be part of that it would be fantastic!”
Sarah training hard at Manchester a few weeks ago before flying to Beijing.
“I hope the success of cycling starts to show people how hard these sports are. There was some one that said cycling, swimming and rowing were flabby sports and that real sports took part in the Birds Nest. Michael Johnson made some idiotic comments about being bored during the first week of swimming and road racing and time trials in cycling and I think that is so naïve as the medals are coming from those sports and it is fantastic to be a part of them.”
Sarah says the 500 metre Time trial, two laps of the track, will be a sharpening up event to kick off her Paralympic Games. “I have never been much of a speed merchant but it gives you a hit out before the main event and having that hit out is so important.”
And going from the track to the road – will be that a major challenge I asked? “The nature of the road Time trial course has been flattened so I think it will be easier to cross over” was her reply. “The process of crossing over between events keeps it interesting, keeps you focused.”
One of her main events is the Pursuit and Sarah has been working on hard on breaking it down and improving all the elements that go to make a perfect effort in specific events. The start for example which is so important for the 500 and the Pursuit and then the speed of the laps.
“I have always been able to pace myself so we have pushed the boundaries in making that as fast as we can and we have also focused on the road time trial so I can even out the effort so I am not gassing myself in certain areas and then not being able to get up the climb for example.”
When we spoke to Sarah, there were still three weeks before her first event and she was working ever so hard. As hard as any athlete I have seen training before a major event. “One thing I have learnt from the past is that if you get on the plane rested, you are peaking too soon” she said of why she was still working so hard.
“In the final few weeks, you always want it to come quicker than it does. Then you arrive in the Paralympic village and there are only days before the opening ceremony and then another day or two before my first event and that will be an absolute lifetime -- no doubt about it.”
Good luck to Sarah in Beijing!
RELATED LINKS
Paralympic Holding Camp -- Manchester
