Two unlikely new British cycling heroes emerged on Friday as Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte claimed the country’s first two Olympic medals in BMX.
Shriever, who once worked as a teaching assistant to fund her riding, produced a huge shock as she dethroned Colombia’s BMX queen Mariana Pajón to win gold in a thrilling race around one lap of the Ariake Urban Sports Park circuit.
Minutes earlier Whyte took the silver in the men’s race after losing out on gold to Dutchman Niek Kimmann. ‘It means the world to British BMX,’ Whyte said. ‘We’ve never had a medal, we’ve got one now, well, we’ve got two now. So history has been made.’