PARIS: Sarah Storey says every race is different. Yet, the outcome — gold medal — always seems the same.
The British cycling star won the women’s C4-5 road race for the fourth time straight for her 19th gold medal at a Paralympic Games.
But the 46-year-old Storey was pushed harder than ever on Friday as French teenager Heidi Gaugain almost snatched the victory in a dramatic finish in front of the flag-waving cheering home fans lining the streets in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.
Gaugain, 19, made her break on the final climb of the 71-kilometer course and opened a promising lead.
The experienced Storey recovered in the final 100 meters to get her front wheel to the line first in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 24 seconds. Gaugain, just half a wheel behind, was left with her third silver medal of the Games.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a bike race here at the Paralympics, at the Olympics, in a grand tour, you just have to trust your instincts and race,” Storey told The Associated Press.
“And if you have as many tools in the toolkit as you can, you pull a different one out and win a bike race in a different way. And I’ve been so fortunate that I’ve always managed to find the right tool for the right race.”
Storey is taking part in her ninth Paralympics. After winning the C5 individual time trial on Wednesday, she became the only athlete from any sport to have won a medal at all nine editions going back to the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Storey was a swimmer then, winning the first of her gold medals in the pool. She switched to cycling after an ear infection at the 2004 Athens Paralympics stopped her swimming for months. Storey won the first of her Paralympic golds in cycling at the 2008 Beijing Games.
“Every single race is different, and you have to see how it plays out and make good judgment. And that’s what makes it exciting,” she said. “So it’s not easy to find motivation when there’s so many unknowns and you need to try and win a race. You don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens.”
Storey, who was born with a disabled left hand because her arm got entangled with the umbilical cord in the womb, has long campaigned for greater accessibility for people with disabilities.
“Paralympic athletes have been provided with incredible support and opportunity. And that’s the metaphor for society,” said Storey, who said disabled people can “thrive” if given opportunities and support.
“It’s about unpicking and unpacking how this is so incredible and why athletes are so well supported, and how you then translate that into something that can enable society. That enablement, that’s really key.”
Storey, who will be 47 next month, is not ruling out defending her titles at the next Paralympics in Los Angeles in 2028, though she acknowledged age’s impact.
“I was creaking before the race. Absolutely. But that’s normal, right?” she posed. “It’s about finding ways to manage the process of and the privilege of getting older as an athlete. And I wanted to be an athlete for as long as I possibly could. I never anticipated eight Games, let alone nine.”
Friday’s close finish and the fight with emerging star Gaugain set the stage for more contests.
“You put yourself out there every time you get on the start line,” Storey said. “I keep doing that and keep finding ways to win a bike race. So, yeah, long may that continue.”
British cycling star Sarah Storey wins her 19th Paralympic gold
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British cycling star Sarah Storey wins her 19th Paralympic gold
- The British cycling star won the women’s C4-5 road race for the fourth time straight for her 19th gold medal at a Paralympic Games
- “It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a bike race here at the Paralympics, at the Olympics, in a grand tour, you just have to trust your instincts and race,” said Storey
Salah and Mane meet again with AFCON final place on the line
- Salah, who turns 34 in June, is running out of time to win a major international honor with his country
- Mane, who also turns 34 this year, will feel less pressure having already collected a Cup of Nations winner’s medal
RABAT: Three years after they last appeared together, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah meet again on Wednesday on opposing sides as Senegal and Egypt clash for a place in the Africa Cup of Nations final.
The last-four showdown in the Moroccan city of Tangiers will be the first time the former Liverpool teammates have shared a pitch since the Anfield club lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final in May 2022.
Shortly after that, Mane left for Bayern Munich before moving to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League a year later.
Salah, meanwhile, has been heavily linked with a move to Saudi Arabia in the near future but remains for now at Liverpool despite falling out of favor with coach Arne Slot before coming to the Cup of Nations.
The Egypt captain is a man on a mission in Morocco, having scored four goals in four appearances on the Pharaoh’s run to the semifinals as he targets winning AFCON for the first time.
Salah, who turns 34 in June, is running out of time to win a major international honor with his country having suffered the agony of two final defeats in the competition.
After being part of the Egypt side beaten by Cameroon in the 2017 final in Gabon, Salah skippered the team beaten on penalties by Senegal in 2022 in Yaounde.
Mane had a penalty saved in normal time on that dramatic night at the Olembe Stadium, but recovered to score the decisive kick in the shoot-out as Senegal became African champions for the first time.
Salah was due to take Egypt’s next penalty but would not get the chance to step up and was already on the verge of tears as Mane prepared to strike the decisive blow.
Less than two months later, the teams met again in a decisive World Cup qualifying play-off and once more penalties were needed — Salah missed, Mane scored and Senegal won.
They went on to reach the last 16 in Qatar while Egypt failed to qualify for the first World Cup held in the Arab world.
Both have qualified for the upcoming tournament in North America, providing what will perhaps be a last chance for the two veterans to star on the biggest stage of all.
- Feeling the pressure -
For now, however, it is all about continental supremacy as Senegal chase a third final in four editions of AFCON, and Egypt aim to take a step closer to a record-extending eighth title overall.
Mane, who also turns 34 this year, will feel less pressure having already collected a Cup of Nations winner’s medal.
“Nobody, even in Egypt, wants to win this trophy more than me,” admitted Salah after helping his team beat Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals.
“I have won almost every prize. This is the title I am waiting for.”
The pair played together under Jurgen Klopp for five years between Salah arriving from Roma in 2017 and Mane’s departure.
They formed a formidable front line along with Roberto Firmino and together won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020 — there were also two defeats to Real in Champions League finals.
But Mane recently admitted that sometimes the pair found it difficult to get along on the pitch.
“I think Mo is first of all a very nice guy. I think though inside the pitch, sometimes he would pass to me and sometimes he wouldn’t,” Mane said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.
“Only Bobby (Firmino) was there to share the balls. Sometimes it was like this,” he added with a laugh.
“I still remember one game when I was really, really angry because he doesn’t pass me the ball.”
This time they really are on opposing sides, as two former African footballers of the year look to lead their countries to glory — for the second time, in Mane’s case.
“The pressure for me is over. Before I won the African Cup, sometimes I played badly because of the pressure,” Mane, who has one goal at this AFCON, admitted on the same podcast.
“All that on your shoulders is not easy,” he added, and Salah is well aware of that.
