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Dame Sarah Storey slams ‘appalling’ course as Paralympics sexism row erupts
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Dame Sarah Storey slammed the ‘appalling’ course as a sexism row erupted after Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian won a record 18th gold in the women’s road race.
Storey, 46, beat home hope Heidi Gaugain – 27 years her junior – having trailed by more than seven seconds after 5.8km of the 14.2km course in Clichy-sous-Bois in Paris’s eastern suburbs. The men’s C5 event is double the distance, comprising two laps of the same course.
“This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had,” Storey said, after completing the course in 20 minutes and 22.15 seconds, 4.69 secs ahead of her French rival. “And I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase para sport in the way that you want to.
“So I hope this is the only time it’s less than 20k. But I really hope that they never do this to the women again because I think it’s been appalling.”
It is understood organisers opted to hold some time trials over the shorter distance because of Wednesday’s busy schedule of 19 races, plus medal ceremonies.
“You’ll have to ask the organisers,” Storey added. “But there’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it in para-cycling is a real disappointment. I’ve had to put that disappointment aside and just concentrate on what I can control because I couldn’t control the race distance.
“You look back to that incredible course in Beijing, Brands Hatch and all the fans, Rio, although it was flat, it was longer. And then Tokyo, we had the motor circuit and no one there anyway. But we had three laps there and it was a real challenge. So I think this is the most disappointing in that sense, after what came before it. And I hope it’s something that doesn’t happen again.”
At the ninth Games of a remarkable career that started in the swimming pool at Barcelona in 1992, Storey further cemented her legacy as husband Barney and children Louisa and Charlie watched. Her victory maintained her 100 per cent Games record on the bike, which began at Beijing in 2008, spans 13 races, and has taken her Paralympic medal tally to 29, including 16 in the pool.
Storey said she may also compete at Los Angeles in 2028.
“Of course, I could,” she said. “But we’ve got to do the road race on Friday and the World Championships first, so we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves.”
Storey has always been outspoken when championing the Paralympic movement, and addressed the furore that overshadowed the start of the Paralympics when Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson was left to “crawl” off a train late in the evening at King’s Cross in London.
“Without a doubt, and I think I said this before London, we were expecting too much of a Paralympics to change society in one fell swoop. And we didn’t. And Tanni’s situation the other day showed that,” she said.
“It is great to have the sporting legacy, and you can see that in the 31 gold medals that the team has got, but the legacy for society is still the thing we have to work on.
“If you provide the opportunities for people with disabilities to thrive, that’s the example, isn’t it? So you take this example, this is a sporting situation. We’ve been given our opportunities to thrive, and we do. If you give every disabled person the opportunity to thrive, they will, it’s a metaphor for what could happen in the rest of society. So we have to make those translations.”
Matthew Robertson came fifth in the men’s C2 event and Daphne Schrager finished fifth behind Brown in the women’s C1-3.
On the short course, Brown said: “I would have liked a bit of a longer course as well, we are capable of riding a bit further.”
Telegraph Sport understands issues over the race were raised by several nations and that two months ago the course was 13.8km, with the organisers increasing it to satisfy the minimum race requirement.
Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has been approached for comment.
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