Dame Sarah Storey

I went to see Dame Sarah Storey's Hour record attempt at London's Olympic Velodrome on 28 February 2015. It was inspiring. 

I've seen all sorts of sporting events in person, from international football matches to an Olympic 100m final but never anything like that. The gut-wrenching loneliness and suffering that Sarah Storey endured to maintain her relentless and unflinching assault on the women's Hour record were clear. During the closing minutes there was a desperation in the crowd which understood that it was powerless to help as she pushed herself to her absolute physical limit. The shouts and screams were not only encouragement, they were a salute to someone with the courage to risk wilfully the gradual dismantling of their composure and dignity for all to see, for sixty increasingly agonising minutes. Having finished, it took Sarah Storey ten minutes to be able to stand. Her eventual lap of honour was evidently almost as excruciating as any lap of the attempt itself. As she rolled weakly by, barely able to raise her arm, there was sense among the spectators that, irrespective of the outcome, they had witnessed something genuinely extraordinary.