A long journey on and off the track ended in jubilation as Beth Shriever won Great Britain's first ever BMX gold medal at the Olympic Games.

A succession of injuries, the withdrawal of UK Sport funding, a cancelled “holiday of a lifetime” for her family and the trials of training in lockdown were all erased as the 22-year-old, from Finchingfield, won her race.

Shriever collapsed on the track in a mixture of triumph and relief before being hoisted aloft by jubilant team-mate Kye Whyte, the 21-year-old who minutes earlier had claimed Britain’s first BMX racing Olympic medal with a silver in his event.

The path to becoming an Olympian was dotted with injuries after she broke a wrist three times, and suffered a tibia and fibula fracture, which required metal plates to be inserted into her leg – only for the procedure to have to be repeated some 18 months later after another crash.

“She’s also got hypermobility, so her joints dislocate easily. She dislocated her shoulder and needed pretty major surgery at the beginning of this year, so that wasn’t that long ago,” her mother added.

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While Shriever had earlier become the flagbearer for women’s BMX in Britain – she was junior world champion in 2017 – her progress suffered a setback when UK Sport decided to fund only male BMX riders following the Rio Olympics.

"She moved home and got a part-time job. We supported her for a couple of years and took her to all the world cups and everything,” Mrs Shriever said.

Her daughter’s plight was eventually eased when British Cycling stepped in with funding, but the onset of the coronavirus pandemic was another blow.

“British Cycling sent weights and gym equipment so she could train at home. She’s got a really good work ethic with training, and worked really hard in lockdown and didn’t really stop.

“The difficult part was not racing for 18 months. That was hard, because you don’t really know where you are compared to the other riders.

“There wasn’t a proper race until they went to Verona in Italy last month, and at least that gave her confidence.

“The only downside was we had a big family holiday planned for Tokyo, but that had to be scrapped. We’re really sad we’re not there with her, but at least the technology has helped stay in touch.”