Neah Evans revealed that she “could not even walk up the stairs” as recently as April after she and Elinor Barker took a gutsy silver in the women’s Madison to ensure that every single member of the GB track cycling team will take home a medal from the Olympics.
Evans, who was not part of the women’s pursuit team who took bronze on Monday, said she was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus, the same debilitating condition which afflicted Mark Cavendish for so long between 2017 and 2020.
“Basically, the past 18 months have been pretty s— for me” she said after she and Barker took double points in the final sprint of the evening to jump above the Netherlands in the famously frantic 120 lap race, which sees teams of two riders hand-sling each other around the track for 120 laps.
“There have been several times where I’ve sat there and thought ‘I’m not going to make it’.
“I had a crash and ripped my hip flexor. I had a crash and did my back. And then at the end of April I ended up with Epstein-Barr, a bacterial infection, that properly floored me.
“The training plan was out the window. Honestly if at that point someone said you will go to the Olympics and get a silver medal I’d have been like ‘not a chance’.
“I remember trying to walk up a flight of stairs and getting halfway up and thinking ‘I can’t get up these stairs’.
“As an athlete you always try to downplay these things and say ‘I’m fine’. But to be so debilitated it was almost quite scary.”