Team GB cycling stars show off Olympic medals in Manchester
Video report from David Chisnall
Olympics fans have been given a glimpse of Olympic medals won by Team GB cycling stars at a special event in Manchester.
Spending time back in their communities for the first time since the end of the games in Paris, athletes including gold medal winners Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell met with local people to help inspire them to learn more about sport and cycling.
They joined other athletes for a mental health workshop at Manchester Bike Kitchen’s Tea & Tinker project, which encourages people to unite over a shared love of bikes and cycling.
The visit was part of an initiative aimed at supporting athletes to use their passion for their sport to make a difference within their communities.
The event caused excitement on an Olympic scale for those who got the chance to get up close to the medalists, and their medals.
Manchester is the home of British Cycling, with the city's velodrome becoming something of a medal factory for Team GB.
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For the track cycling stars, it was a chance to share their success after returning home from Paris. Sophie Capewell won gold in the sprint cycle event in Paris. She says people have been really excited to see her medal: "Everyone, like when I met all my family and they just want to hold it and touch it and have pictures with it."It's so precious. It's just I can't put it into words - it's a dream come true."
Andy Hilton from Manchester Bike Kitchen said: "We have a number of schemes that are open to the community, one's called Tea and Tinker. It's for slightly older people to help them to get out the house for a cup of tea, and a tinker with the bike if you wish, or just to talk rubbish to us. We don't mind!
"We've now got people coming in to volunteer regularly and they're going out and doing rides. So all that's obviously improving the physical and the mental health as well."The visit was part of the ChangeMaker week - an initiative run by UK Sport, Team GB, Paralympics GB and the National Lottery, allowing Olympians to give back to local communities.
Bronze medalist Josie Knight and BMX racer Beth Shriever also attended and met fans and fellow bike enthusiasts.Sprint cycle gold medal winner Katy Marchant said: "It's an amazing platform to be able to get out there and to challenge to win Olympic gold medals. But fundamentally, we just ride bikes in circles. And I think that if we can, we can share that and give back to the people and inspire people to do the same. It's so good for mental health, it's so good for physical health and it's so accessible to many people.
"We're really fortunate that cycling is a really accessible sport. I would encourage anyone to get over to the Manchester Velodrome and just give it a go. It's it's super fun and I think you won't regret it."