Four years ago, Joanna Rowsell Shand wrote her name into Olympic history.

Ahead of London 2012, 22 men’s team pursuit Olympic champions had been crowned but women had never had the chance to compete in the event on the world’s biggest stage.

Enter Rowsell Shand, taking to the boards with team-mates Laura Trott and Dani King. 3:14.051 later, and the British trio had secured the first ever women’s team pursuit Olympic title in world record time.

That was a 3km team pursuit – now women will compete over 4km for the first time at the Games. Time for history to be made once more.

“I'm feeling really excited ahead of Rio, it's a very different lead in to London,” said Rowsell Shand.

“Obviously going into London we were world champions and world record holders and there was the huge hype around a home Games which is completely different this time round.

“I'm just looking forward to getting out there and seeing what it's all about and then getting on with the job we're there to do.”

One major difference in the preparation for Rio is in the personnel, both in names and numbers. Rowsell Shand is one of five riders named, alongside Laura Trott, Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne, with just four women competing in each round.

Another change in the pre-Game routine came at the world championships in London. For the first time in the event’s history, Great Britain Cycling Team didn’t contest the gold medal final – with Rowsell Shand, Trott, Barker and Horne winning bronze.

Rowsell Shand says that proves just how competitive the event has become.

“We've got America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and ourselves at the worlds, all very close together, plus other countries like China coming up strong behind as well so I think it's a really exciting event to be a part of at the moment.

“I'm interested to see how fast teams will ride out in Rio because obviously everyone's preparing specifically for this event all summer so I think it's quite exciting how fast we're going to be able to go.”

Despite not being world champions, it’s clear that as defending Olympic champions, Team GB will be in other nations’ sights in Brazil.

But the 27-year-old says gold in London doesn’t add any more pressure.

“I feel if anything it takes it away. I've already got an Olympic gold medal so I've already ticked that box which is the biggest thing you can achieve in the world of cycling so I see this as a bonus.

“I don't actually see it as extra pressure at all, I see that we've already been there and done it, I'd love to go and do it again and I can draw on all that experience which will hopefully help this time around.

“The aim is always to win, but you can never go in aiming for a result like that, you've got to aim for your best performance, so for us, it will be about going out, executing the qualifying ride well, hopefully that will get us into the top four and then progressing through the competition as well as we can.

“If we do that we can come away happy and say we did all we could.”

And if that leads to another gold medal for Rowsell Shand in Rio? Then those Olympic record books will need to be rewritten once again. 

Team pursuit guide