Emma Finucane: I have a tumour on my knee which I have named Harold

It’s a good thing Emma Finucane is so good at sprinting. Britain’s rising track cycling star has to carry an extra being around the velodrome with her. “His name is Harold and he’s a part of me,” Finucane says, laughing, as she rolls up her trouser leg to show me a sizable growth just below her left knee. “It’ll be gone soon, though. After Paris. I’m having surgery to remove it.”

Whether Finucane and Harold can end their relationship on a high note will be one of the big stories of the final week of these Games. To say there are high hopes for the young Welsh rider would be an understatement.

None other than Dame Laura Kenny has backed Finucane to win “multiple medals” in Paris, starting on Monday in the women’s team sprint, the first medal on offer in the velodrome. And then in the keirin on Thursday and the individual sprint on the final day of the Games on Sunday. “I keep saying it and then I keep thinking ‘don’t say it because you just put pressure on her’,” Kenny said again this week. “But honestly she could be the first woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics, and she’s only 21.”

Fortunately, Finucane seems to be the type who can handle this insane level of expectation, which has only increased since Katie Archibald’s miserable injury a few weeks ago. In the Scot’s absence, it is Finucane who the British track cycling team will look to for inspiration at these Games.

She knows this and is determined not to let it affect her.

Happy-go-lucky, good-humoured, it’s not that Finucane doesn’t suffer from pressure. She does. Finucane (pronounced ‘Fi-NOO-kuhn’), who grew up on an army base in the Welsh town of Carmarthen, had a good cry in the toilets at the Glasgow Velodrome before becoming world sprint champion last summer, aged just 20. But she seems to be getting better at dealing with it.

“It was a huge thing, learning how to manage racing as a world champion,” she says. “I went through so many emotions. I worked a lot with the GB psychologists. I came up with coping strategies. Like talking to people, or watching YouTube videos, listening to music, going for walks. The Euros (European Track Cycling Championships in January) were a very proud moment for me because I won under the pressure.

“Now it’s the pressure of people saying I’m going to win three golds. And it’s tough. You want to try and use that to get really confident. But I’m not really the type of person to walk around and be like that (Finucane mimics arrogance).

“I think I’m going to try to embrace it,” she says. “Emotions can come out. Like in Glasgow when I had to go to the bathroom. I might feel that again. But I know that feeling now. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I think it’s OK. Because keeping it bottled up, bottling up your emotions, will make you run around like a fool.”

Finucane laughs and we’re reminded of how young she is. She’s only been part of the elite programme for a few years. Sitting in the velodrome, looking at Jason Kenny coaching the men’s sprint team, she talks about the thrill it was when he first noticed her. “He rolled me into a keirin once and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Jason Kenny!’ And he said, ‘Come on, Emma.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’ To have people like that around you every day is cool. For me to come to training and Sir Jason Kenny to be there coaching the boys.”

“My dream when I was 10 years old was to race in the Tour de France”

Finucane wasn’t always into track cycling. In fact, she didn’t like cycling at all. Her dad played rugby, her mum ran. “We did everything, Scouts, running, triathlon, netball. And then we started cycling at my local velodrome in Carmarthen. We lived on an army base, which was right next door. And me and my sister Rosie, who’s 11 months younger than me, used to cycle around the velodrome, do cyclo-cross. And then when you got to about 10, that’s when you could go to the track.”

At first, Finucane was more interested in the endurance side of things. At the national championships one year, she won the 500m time trial and the sprint. But she also won the Madison and the scratch race in her age group. It was former GB sprinter Matt Crampton who advised her to focus on the sprint events.

“I was like, ‘What?’ I hated the gym! I hated doing two laps and then leaving. I just didn’t get it. My dream when I was 10 was always to race the Tour de France. And I still love road cycling. But then I became European champion and I thought, ‘Oh, actually, this could be good!’”

Finucane applied to be on the GB programme and moved to Manchester to live in a house with other young riders including Hamish Turnbull, Milly Tanner, Lewis Stewart and, later, Hayden Norris. “It was the best time of my life,” she says. “It was like a little family and I really grew up. Millie taught me how to clean, cook chicken and Hamish taught me how to do the washing. You go home with them, watch TV with them, have the emotional rollercoaster with them. I loved it.”

Finucane now lives with fellow Carmarthen cyclist Jess Roberts in Bredbury, and still doesn’t really like the gym. She says she can “only” hit about 1500 watts in a sprint. When I tell her that sounds like a lot, she laughs. “Man, some of the girls on the other teams are putting up crazy numbers. But it’s how you use it. I’m not the most powerful girl on the scene, but I can win bike races. I just do it a little differently. So, like, my max power half the time is nowhere near what the other girls are doing, but maybe I’m more efficient on the bike.”

Harold’s presence means she has to do things a little differently. Finucane can’t do squats at the gym, for example. She tried at first because she felt like everyone else was doing them. But it soon became obvious to her trainer that it was doing more harm than good. “One of my legs is longer than the other,” she shrugs.

“I’ve always been a little unstable. Now I do other exercises. And I kind of figured out that, like, ‘This is me.’ I’m in my own lane. I can lift big weights on other exercises, the leg press or whatever. We don’t all have to do the same program.”

Will it be a big moment to say goodbye to Harold? “He might grow back!” she says, laughing. “I remember talking to the surgeon. They said, ‘There’s no guarantee it won’t.’” But yes, Finucane is ready. A huge F1 fan, she’s also looking forward to heading to Monza next month for the Italian Grand Prix. “I’m an OG,” she makes clear. “I’m not a Netflix newbie.” Who’s her favourite driver? “It used to be Max. Now I’m Team Lando.”

“We’re going to have to break a world record”

First, she has the small matter of the Olympics to deal with. Finucane makes it clear that Monday’s team sprint – the first time Britain has qualified for a women’s team sprint since Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish were controversially disqualified at London 2012 – is her top priority. “It’s the most controllable event,” she explains. “Three girls, three laps and you know more or less what it’s going to take to win gold. You’re going to have to break a world record. We know that.”

Winning the team sprint, Finucane figures, and everything else is a bonus. She smiles again. “Am I ready? I think two years ago, I didn’t even think I’d go to Paris and now I’m world champion and everyone’s tipping me for big things. I don’t know. I’m just trying to do my best. I’m trying to make my younger self proud.”

“The Olympics are everyone’s dream. I’ve been dreaming about it since I was about 10 years old. So, yeah, I think… am I ready? I probably never will be. But I’m going to try.”

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