Emma Finucane says she will go back to the drawing board in 2025 in the hope of becoming “unstoppable” at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The 22-year-old track cyclist ended 2024 with an Olympic gold medal, two Olympic bronzes, two World Championship golds and now an MBE.
After a long break in Australia over the winter, Finucane says she is hoping to get even better after a “dream-come-true” year.
“I want to win three gold medals at the next Games in LA,” she told BBC Sport Wales. “So I need to find my weaknesses.
“We’re really going to go back to square one, back to training and the gym. The next couple of years will be about training, not so much about racing.
“There’s a lot of hard work behind it, but I’m really up for the challenge to see what else I can do my career.
“It’s just the start for me, which is kind of crazy saying that.”
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Finucane’s 2024 saw much success, but also many lessons learned.
The biggest insight was how to control her emotion, which threatened to boil over in Paris.
Finucane admits she was “overwhelmed” by the expectation on her shoulders beforehand and cried before the victorious team sprint final in the velodrome.
But she says that outpouring of emotion – as well as having open conversations with her coaches and support staff – became an important part of racing with a clear head.
“The emotion is me getting my body prepared for what it’s about to do,” she explained.
“I’ve learned not to race on emotion. You get too caught up in it. You forget how to race. You don’t have a clear process. So for me I need a clear process.
“So I think the emotion is I’m nervous, obviously, to compete on a world stage. Nerves for me are important and I think the crying is how I deal with that.
“I pushed boundaries and limits I didn’t even know I had, which is exciting. So there’s definitely things I’ve learned and I will take throughout my career.”
Despite her success at the Olympics and World Championships, Finucane is not one to get complacent.
At the season-ending Track Champions League event, 21-year-old Russian Alina Lysenko won the women’s sprint event with some eye-catching victories over the world’s best.
It did not go unnoticed by Finucane, but serves only as motivation for her return to training in February.
In 2025 she will not the race the European Championships or Nationals and at most one Track Nations Cup – as she focuses on improvements behind the scenes.
After a whirlwind start to her career, Finucane is looking forward to a quieter season on the track. Although it will still end with October’s World Championships, as she goes for a third straight sprint world title.
Her dream year is over, but Finucane is already looking forward to the next chapter of her remarkable story.