Silver still shining bright for Olympic medallist Shearman
Weeks on from the Paris Olympics, Emily Shearman’s smile hasn’t faded and her medal has barely left her side.
The track cyclist is still on cloud nine after winning a silver medal at the Paris Games. The Palmerston North rider was in the New Zealand pursuit team, along with Ally Wollaston, Nicole Shields and Bryony Botha, who finished 0.621 seconds behind the United States in the gold medal ride. Shearman returned home this week proudly sporting her medal.
“It was super exciting, it feels super surreal [winning a medal]. It’s something you’ve dreamed of since you were a kid.
“It’s definitely starting to sink in more now I’m home and once I start to see more family, everyone gets excited.”
Shearman went to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where the pursuit team also won a silver medal, but this was her first Olympics and she enjoyed the experience.
It was the first time New Zealand had won an Olympic medal in the women’s team pursuit.
“It was exciting to see the whole team do super well.
“It was our most successful campaign and we’re looking forward to improving there and taking that momentum.”
She said coach Paul Manning had helped the team improve.
The team were runners-up to Great Britain at last year’s world championships so had been rated a medal chance going into the Games and they were feeling good approaching the competition. “People can turn up and perform times you never expect so there’s a lot of unknown. People can just turn up and pull something out of the bag.”
The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome was a fast track with short straights and was good for team pursuit, she said. Shearman also teamed up with Botha to ride the madison event and finished eighth. Riding the madison at international level was relatively new to Shearman after she only got the opportunity to do so in March.
“We were happy with how we rode and we were one of the fastest overall speed-wise. It will be cool to keep training together.”
The New Zealand team stayed in a hotel near the velodrome, rather than in the Olympic village, so they were close to the venue.
She was having a break for a month before she went back to Cambridge to start training for the Nations Cup next year.
Breaks were rare and she hadn’t had a lengthy spell since 2021 when an irregular heartbeat meant she had a year off the bike.
“I’m just looking forward to some time off and doing some stuff I don’t normally do while I’m training, like spending time with family and friends.”