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Anna Henderson claimed a stunning silver medal in a Parisian deluge, just two months after fearing her Olympic dreams were over.
The 25-year-old broke her collarbone for the second time this year in May but managed to return to full fitness in time to compete in the women’s time trial.
Several riders suffered crashes as rain swept through the French capital, but former skier Henderson was able to stay on track and crossed the Pont Alexandre III in 41:09.83, fast enough to edge out Chloe Dygert – who was among those to fall off her bike – for silver by less than a second.
“Last year I was two seconds away from bronze at Worlds, so I’m really happy to be on the right side of seconds this time,” she said. “I’m really proud.”
“The second injury really hurt me mentally, and it took me a long time to get back on my feet and get motivated again. But I always had Paris in my mind and that really carried me through, and I can’t help but mention the people around me who helped me get through it.
“I thought about missing the Olympics. It was a really tough time in my season but I got over it pretty quickly. I won the national championships, had a really good ride in the Tour of Britain and had a really good run leading up to this event.
“I’m really happy with my form and my race.”
Australia’s Grace Brown took gold after an eventful afternoon on the 32.4km course. American Taylor Knibb crashed three times – once her mechanic crashed while coming to her aid – and her compatriot Dygert also suffered a heavy fall.
Dygert was left limping across the finish line after recovering to finish the race, giving Henderson – who remained on two wheels throughout the race to stay in contention – a nervous wait to find out what colour her medal would be.
“It was a little confusing because the TV was really far behind and I couldn’t see the board,” she said.
“I knew I had a medal, which was amazing in itself, and then I had to figure out if it was going to be silver or bronze. Having silver is even better.”
Henderson’s medal is the second for Team GB at Paris 2024 and the Hemel Hempstead star admitted she surprised herself with her performance.
She has set her sights on a pastry from a traditional French patisserie as her reward and plans to celebrate with those who helped her come out on the other side of the dark days earlier this year.
“It’s been blood, sweat and tears,” added Henderson, who is supported by Aldi’s Nearest and Dearest program. “I’m really grateful to everyone who helped me get here and get through this.”
“I have the whole team here and I’m very happy that they can come. I’m really happy that they’re here.”
The emotions were very different in the men’s time trial, as Britain’s Josh Tarling missed out on bronze by just 2.16 seconds – after his efforts to salvage his race after an early puncture ended in heartbreak on the streets of Paris.
Tarling suffered a front tyre puncture and had to change bikes as he completed the 32.4km course. But despite the initial setback, the 20-year-old managed to make up ground to threaten the medal positions.
In the end, Tarling finished well off the podium, ahead of Belgian Wout van Aert who took bronze, Italian Filippo Ganna took silver and Remco Evenpoel took gold for the Belgian team. The top four finished 28 seconds apart and well ahead of the rest of the field. Tarling was still 35 seconds ahead of American Brandon McNulty who finished fifth.
Tarling’s time wasted changing his bike at the mechanic’s shop cost him the bronze.
“Yeah… shit happens, right?” he said.. “It’s really tough, you know, you have to put in a lot of effort. It happens. I had a flat tire on the front, it was on the rim, in this corner that was coming, I had to change. It’s annoying, in a few days, I have to do the road race. We’ll see.”
Aldi is proud to be the official partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes up to Paris 2024
