Finucane is BBC Wales Sports Personality for 2023

Track cyclist Emma Finucane is the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year for 2023.

In August, Finucane claimed her first major title as she took gold in the women’s sprint at the Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.

The 20-year-old also won a world team sprint silver, in a year which started with four national titles.

“It’s amazing, there are so many legends that have won this [award],” said Finucane.

“I really appreciate that people have appreciated what I’ve done. It’s nice to have a nation behind me, supporting me.

“We are quite a small country but to have that passion behind us and to have them on my sleeve as well is really important.”

In January the Carmarthen-born rider won sprint, team sprint, keirin and 500m TT gold medals at the British National Track Championships in Newport’s Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales.

Her breakthrough year continued with two European Championship silver medals and a first Track Nations Cup victory in round two of that event in Cairo, to add to two bronzes from round one.

In the early evening of Wednesday, 9 August, Finucane was flat on her back on the track inside Glasgow’s Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome for the second time in four days.

The emotions on each of those occasions, though, were quite different.

Having already been part of the Great Britain trio who set a world record in the team sprint final – only to be edged into second place when Germany went even quicker – Finucane had high hopes for her second event, the keirin.

However, a crash at the quarter-final stage left her on the boards in tears. Afterwards she said she left the track “so angry” and admitted to crying more than she expected.

Yet it was a disappointment Finucane used to fuel her golden success, as she flew around the track to set the best time ever recorded at sea level in her 200m qualifying ride.

She then won every match sprint as she swept her way to a first world title. It was a victory that came with more tears – even in between her two wins in the best-of-three-heat final against Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich.

“Loads of people don’t really know, but I had to go to the toilets to cry and sort myself out because I was so nervous,” she told BBC Sport Wales.

“The pressure, the expectation – you are in front of a home crowd and everybody is expecting you to win, especially being 1-0 up, and you’re coming into that thinking ‘right this is it’.

“You just have to take it all in, focus and get the task done.

“When I crossed the finish line it was such a relief, I was like ‘I’ve done it’. All the hard work, the training hours, all the what-ifs, what can I do, what can I not do, and it all just came together.

“It was literally like a fairytale and when I crossed the line, I was in disbelief.

“I put my hand over my mouth because I was like ‘oh my gosh, I’ve won’. It’s something I’ll never forget, it was such a special moment.”

Finucane grew up in Carmarthen, across the road from the west Wales town’s outdoor concrete cycle track.

At the age of eight her mother paid £1 to sign her up with local club Towy Riders.

“We just started riding round on bikes with pink tassels on them, me and my little sister Rosie, and we just progressed from there, we did a bit of cyclo-cross, a bit of road.

“Then when I was about 10 we went to Newport to start the track and my parents basically carted me all over the country.

“Obviously it was quite a transition because there’s no brakes and no gears, you have to be a bit fearless, so I kind of just went for it.”

One decade on, at 20 years old, that no fear attitude saw Finucane become the youngest match sprint world champion in almost half a century. She is the first British winner in the discipline since fellow Welsh rider Becky James’ triumph in Minsk in 2013.

“Ever since I was 10 years old I wanted to become world champion,” said Finucane.

“Obviously I look up to Becky James. She’s a huge inspiration for me because she’s Welsh. Her sister coached me at the Commonwealth Games which was really special, so to have that 10 years ago and then come back around in women’s sprinting is amazing.”

She now joins another of her heroes, twice-winner Geraint Thomas, on the list of BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personalities of the Year.

Finucane was selected for the BBC Cymru Wales award by an expert panel chaired by Paralympic great and Sport Wales Chair Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. She was joined by Leshia Hawkins, the Cricket Wales chief executive, former Wales footballer and netball player Nia Jones, Sport Wales’ Owen Lewis, Cardiff Metropolitan University’s dean of Sport and Health Sciences Professor Katie Thirlaway, and BBC Wales Sport’s Sue Butler and Laura Kenyon.

“Emma Finucane has had amazing performances this year, especially for someone so young,” said Grey-Thompson

“Her individual performances are amazing and when you look back at the history of women’s cycling in the UK, she’s got a huge amount to look up to. And when you look at the impact of a small nation like Wales has in this sport, it’s brilliant.”

There were also honourable mentions for boxers Lauren Price and Joe Cordina, darts player Gerwyn Price, Para-athlete Aled Sion Davies, swimmer Matt Richards and Wales football captain Sophie Ingle.

“Every year you look back but when you see it all written down on paper, every month of the year, there is just always amazing things happening in Wales,” added Grey-Thompson.

“BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year is a lovely celebration of Welsh sport, which keeps doing amazingly well. Welsh sport is always punching above its weight.”

Two years ago Finucane thought she might get to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. After her unbeatable match sprinting in 2023, she is set to go to next year’s Games in Paris as one of the favourites.

“It is exciting but it’s also nerve-wracking because I am world champion which brings a lot of expectation and pressure, and I’m just trying to use that and enjoy it,” she said.

“It is going to be crazy if I do get selected [for Paris] – it’s just such a dream of mine.

“The possibility is I could be going and it is really exciting to me to put on a GB jersey and ride for my country and possibly win for my country.

“It is crazy to say that, but you want to go to the Olympics and come back with a gold medal and every athlete dreams of that, it’s the pinnacle of track cycling.”