The risk was immense and the fall was brutal.
Charlotte Worthington was attempting a feat never before tried in women’s BMX freestyle competition – a 360 degree backwards loop-the-loop which she’d only practiced three times before on this wooden Olympic surface.
She fractionally rushed it – ‘I was probably a little bit giddy and span a little bit too early,’ she said in the aftermath – and ended up clipping the lip of the bank she was landing into, plummeting from her bike.
Charlotte Worthington has taken gold for Team GB in the women's freestyle BMX with the first ever 360 backflip
The British celebrates after a sensational second run which saw her earn a monster score of 97.50
Worthington pictured with her gold medal during the ceremony after the women's event
That very much seemed to be the end of an Olympic dream for the 25-year-old, who was cooking up fajitas in a Mexican restaurant in Manchester four years ago.
But the 25-year-old threw herself into the somersault again second time around, taking a gold medal in a final where the best of two scores counted. Team-mate Declan Brooks then took bronze in a monumentally competitive men’s event.
‘There was no way I wasn’t going to try that trick second time. I was all in on doing that one, Worthington reflected. ‘As soon we set the goal of gold medal, it was go big or go home.’
The ‘360 back-flip’ was just one part of a routine of unerring balance, athleticism and artistry which took Worthington to a score of 97.50, surpassing American teenage prodigy Hannah Roberts who threw down her bike in jubilation after a seemingly untouchable first round routine.
Worthington missed her first attempt at the 360 but recovered to get back on her bike
The Brit beat the much favoured American rider Hannah Roberts, who took the silver medal
The vocabulary of this new sport might be new – the ‘can-can’, ‘leg plant’ and ‘one-handed table top’ all feature – but it was mesmerising: part of an Olympics seeking to broaden its appeal.
Worthington, beginning her routine at the highest point of the course, threw herself into a forward roll on a bike. But the back flip through a full revolution - the Yurchenko double pike vault of BMX – was the big one. Worthington had tested it out only on foam and resin at British Cycling’s BMX base, known as ‘Adrenalin Alley’, at Corby, Northamptonshire. Applying it to unyielding wood, another challenge entirely, is something she’s done out here.
‘I’ve been working on it a few months,’ Worthington said, with her gold medal around her neck. ‘I keep my cards close to my chest because it definitely pays off in these situations.
‘I’ve also learned on the years prior to this that if you gamble - and you give yourself that chance - it’s going to pay off better and going to feel better if you hold off and think what could have been.’
Her arm hurt when she fell. In the crisis point
