Cycling
Chloé Dygert strikes gold and breaks record twice at World Cycling champs
Track cycling star Dygert wowed the Berlin crowd at the weekend, as she broke the individual pursuit world record twice en route to gold at the 2020 World Track Cycling Championships in Germany.
Chloé Dygert had previously won five track world gold medals ahead of the 2020 edition in Germany, as well as the 2019 road time trial title. She'd also already helped the Americans win the women's team pursuit on Thursday, alongside Jennifer Valente, Emma White and Lily Williams.
But Dygert wasn't content with the fourth world team track gold of her short career, so she took to the track again on Saturday to smash her own individual world record during qualifying with a superb time of 3m 17.283s.
It's a mark of the ability and ambition of the 23-year-old racer that she managed to be slightly disappointed that she didn't go even faster, saying: "Last year I had a goal to set a 15 or 16, but today I really wanted to get a 14, so I’m a little bummed, but I went out there with everything I had."
And, astonishingly, Dygert then lowered the world-best mark again to 3m 16.937s in the gold medal race against Lisa Brennauer, with the German 6.282s behind in the silver medal spot.
I want to break 3:10… I think there are some huge gains to be made
The individual pursuit is no longer an Olympic event, but Dygert added: "I want to break 3:10. I haven't been on the track very long and I missed last year with injury. I think there are some huge gains to be made."
Dygert switches to road racing over the next few months before she doubles up with the track team pursuit and road events at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where she's expecting the competition to be very tough indeed: "Everyone's going to make gains before the Olympics. We can't assume things. I've got to work harder than ever before."