Charlotte Worthington produces new move to win Olympic gold in BMX freestyle
'I'm waiting to wake up - it went exactly how I'd been dreaming it would go'
Former cook Charlotte Worthington served up a gold medal for Team GB in the BMX freestyle as British success in Tokyo continued on Sunday.
Worthington, from Manchester, landed the first-ever 360 backflip to be performed in women’s competition, having worked in a Mexican restaurant as she trained for this year’s Games.
The 25-year-old’s gold was followed by a bronze for Declan Brooks in the men’s freestyle, while a British quartet snared a silver in the last swimming event in the pool, the 4×100 men’s medley.
Worthington fell in her first run but landed a front flip and a huge backflip on her way to a first-place finish, with Britain’s most successful female Olympic track cyclist Laura Kenny saying: “I think that’s one of my favourite ever Olympic golds!”
Speaking afterwards, she said: “In 2018, I was working in a restaurant.
“At that time it was the Racconto Lounge in Bury, but I started working in restaurants in the Beagle in Manchester.
“In 2018, I went to a couple of events and contests and got speaking to people and found out about BMX being in the Olympics and British cycling were putting together a team.
“At the time, I was just taking a lot of really cool opportunities that I enjoyed doing and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Her victory came after Bethany Shriever secured the Olympic title in the BMX racing, while Kye Whyte finished second in the men’s event.
Brooks’ bronze means Team GB finished on the podium in all four BMX competitions in Tokyo.
Stephen Park, British Cycling’s performance director, said people should remember her name.
He tweeted: “The route hasn’t been smooth but to nail @Tokyo2020 this after the 1st run fail is huge testimony to her belief & resilience.
“@chazworther A Top @TeamGB @BritishCycling athlete. Remember her name.”
Adrenaline Alley in Corby, where both Worthington and Brooks train, posted of their pride at the BMX performances on social media, saying: “This is unbelievable!! 2 medals are coming home! We are so proud @chazworther @declanbrooks.”
Meanwhile, in the pool, Duncan Scott won a record fourth medal at the Games with a silver in the medley relay alongside Luke Greenbank, James Guy, and Adam Peaty.
Peaty’s mother Caroline said she was “so proud” of the team, who were pipped to first by the United States, who clocked a world record to seal gold.
Britain finished 0.73 seconds adrift in a new European record time as they claimed a record eighth swimming medal – four golds, three silvers and a bronze – beating their previous best haul from the 1908 London Games.
They were unable to win a race at London 2012 while Peaty was their only gold medallist at Rio four years later, so the 26-year-old from Uttoxeter admitted to feeling bittersweet by the result of the final swimming event in Japan.
Peaty said their "pain" at the result shows how much progress Great Britain has made in the pool in the past decade.
'I was blown away': Legendary British swimmer Mark Foster praises the swimming results
Mark Foster, former world champion and one Great Britain's most successful ever swimmers, echoed Peaty's comments that the result show "how far we've come."
"I was blown away, we all had expectations but then them delivering results was always the hard thing," he told ITV News.
"We went in with lots of number one seeded swimmers in the world and they delivered.
"Adam Peaty led the way with the team getting the gold on the second night with the breaststroke and that sort of fed through the team, that sort of belief ran through the team.
"You can always see strength in depth within a team when it comes to the relays and the fact we won the men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay and then won the mixed 4 x 100 medley relay just shows you how far we’ve come."
He added: "Across the board great results. We also had a few people in finals that didn’t quite get there, but were very close. But next time in three years they’ll have a lot more hunger."