Beth Shriever never expected to win Britain’s first BMX SuperCross Olympic gold in Tokyo – she would have been “delighted” with any place in the eight-strong final.
Victory was in her own words a “complete shock” but just weeks later she completed a “crazy and surreal” golden double with her first senior World Championship win.
Remember, this is an athlete who quit the British Cycling programme in 2017 – after UK Sport decided not to invest in female riders – and had to rely on income from a part-time teaching assistant role, as well as crowd-funding, to support her Olympic dream.
Shriever says rejoining the British team in 2019 was “crucial” to her performances in 2021.
After a post-Games break – which included film premieres and hanging out with celebrities such as Idris Elba and Maya Jama – she is keen to take a step towards another historic landmark at the first World Cup of the season, in Glasgow this weekend.
“The Olympic and world double is the ultimate because you can only do it once every four years and it’s incredible to do it so early in my career,” the 23-year-old tells BBC Sport.
“I want to keep winning and defending titles, but the overall World Cup Series is definitely the main one now.”
Going solo a ‘reality check’
Shriever was called a ‘rising star’ after claiming world junior silver (2016) and gold (2017).
The decision by multiple BMX world champion Shanaze Reade to switch to track cycling around that time created a predicament though, as UK Sport’s rigid funding model did not permit investment in junior prospects alone at that time.
While British Cycling were able to divert some commercial income towards development riders, Shriever chose to forge her own path.
A maiden World Cup win in 2018 was encouraging, but she was 17th on her senior world debut and results were generally steady rather than spectacular.
“When I was working [as a teaching assistant] it made me realise how hard it is to live a normal life and train as well,” she recalls. “It definitely made me gain perspective.
“I took the plunge to come back into the programme because I thought ‘I need to do this if I really want to do well in the sport’ and I decided to give everything, every day.”
Shriever progressed “in leaps and bounds” once she rejoined the programme, which was now backed by UK Sport’s revised – and more flexible – funding policy.
‘Keeping it real’ key to sustained success
Accommodation, coaching, nutritional support and access to sport psychology was all made available to her and the latter she feels has been particularly crucial to her success.
“Some athletes are very serious and don’t want anyone to talk to them at a competition, which is fine, but I’m not like that,” she says.
“I’ve done so much work with my psychologist about keeping everything as normal as possible, so let’s chat, let’s have a joke, laugh. I did that at an Olympics by staying on social media and posting between races and it didn’t work out too badly did it?”
Life may have changed since the Games, but Shriever insists she has not.
“It’s been a bit mad with surreal opportunities like the James Bond premier, the GQ Awards and getting the insane goodie boxes, because as a rider you never experience anything like that,” she continues.
“I’m still the same person though, just living the dream doing my job. And I know I can’t be an athlete forever so I’m now digging in, making the most of it while I can.”
‘Other riders respect me more now’
The biggest post-Olympic transformation Shriever has noticed has come at the track.
“The main difference is that people will stop and watch to see what I do and what line I’m trying on the track, whereas before people wouldn’t even take a glance at me,” she says.
“I used to have to wait and be like, ‘Oh, I need to get on with Mariana [Pajon] or Laura [Smulders] to see where I’m at’, whereas now people have that respect and want to get on the gate with me, which is a huge bonus.”
In addition to marking the start of her mission to become Britain’s first overall World Cup series winner, the event in Glasgow this weekend will also give Shriever the opportunity to perform in front of a home crowd and family for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
“My mum, dad and boyfriend are all coming up and it will be great to finally have them at a big race because they obviously couldn’t be at the Olympics or the Worlds,” she states.
“The track is like no other – very technical, very unforgiving and it’s taken a lot of time for us girls to get used to, but I think it’s going to hold some really good racing for sure!”