Paris Olympics 2024: Team GB's Neah Evans aims to go a step higher on podium
- Published
Neah Evans claimed Olympic silver in the team pursuit in Tokyo three years ago
Neah Evans leaves no room for doubt when asked what she hopes to achieve at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
"A gold medal would be my target," the Team GB cyclist says matter of factly.
Three years ago, in the Covid-afflicted Toyko Games, the Scot claimed silver in the team pursuit. Far from sating her, it has left the 33-year-old wanting more.
"If I am honest, there is a tiny bit of disappointment because there was someone standing on the step higher," Evans says, reflecting on that experience.
"It was surreal first of all to have made it to the Olympic Games, then almost a sense of relief of 'I've won a medal'. But we lost that final.
"When you say that, a lot of people go, 'but you still got an Olympic silver'. But I remember doing all this media and thinking, 'it could have been better'. It sounds quite arrogant but it's quite a juxtaposition of emotions."
Winning is what Britain's cyclists do - Evans included. Multiple world and European Championship golds are among her collection.
So as well as her own expectations, she will go into Paris burdened with the extra pressure of being a world champion.
"That has a huge amount of prestige because you race wearing rainbow bands for that year, so it literally is a target on your back," Evans says.
"In an Olympics, you don't race with the rainbows on but everybody knows who you are, everybody is waiting for you to make that move and they are going to come with you.
"It is an enjoyable pressure but it does change the racing dynamic in bunch races."
'Absolutely zero plans to retire'
It is still a few months before the Team GB cycling squad for Paris is announced but Evans appears certain to again be included.
She will be one of the older members of the group but, in relative terms, the former veterinarian has not been competing at the elite level for long, having only taken up cycling full-time seven years ago.
Not that the Aberdeenshire-based rider is concerned by age.
"On paper, I am older but my time in the sport is still a lot lower than quite a few of my team-mates, so that works in my favour to some degree," she added.
"I think if I go in with the attitude of 'I am still developing and I've still got more to give', then who knows how high I can reach?
"I am not going to be self-limiting. Mentally, you give way before you do physically and I could easily do that at my age and think, 'this is it, my physiological limit'. But you are only as old as you feel.
"At the moment I have absolutely zero plans to retire. I experienced a proper job when I worked as a vet and I love that job and find it hugely rewarding but I'm also not rushing back to do it."