Emma Finucane doesn’t sound like an assassin. Standing in front of me at the side of the track at the National Cycling Centre – the home of British Cycling – in Manchester, the softly spoken 22-year-old from Wales is friendly and laid back. But the Emma who wins bike races? That version had to be created and that version is ruthless. “For me to get aggressive is quite hard,” she says. “I like to say that I’ve found a different character on the track than who I am normally.” 

To understand why Finucane is now a world and Olympic sprint champion, you need to appreciate what it took to build that side of her. Not just the coaching and conditioning. The psychological evolution. The cultivated edge. The trained intensity that flicks on just long enough to demolish the opposition, then fades back into the affable young woman standing here today. “You can’t have that [intensity] 24/7 because it’s so extreme,” she says. “But when you’re competing for 30 seconds to a minute, you need to be intense. You need to be aggressive. You need to be extreme.” 

The creation of Emma Finucane the Olympic champion has been an act of precision engineering aided by her sponsor, Remaker, the strength tracking ecosystem. “I think winners are made,” she says. And it’s a process that is merciless. Indeed, there have been moments of self-doubt so deep she questioned whether she deserved her own victories. After becoming world champion, she struggled to bring herself to compete again, convinced it had all come too soon. Even the joy of racing in front of a home crowd is heavy with pressure: “Everyone’s looking at me, and I can’t control anything.” 

So she created a method. A persona. A pre-race rhythm. “Aggression. Socks. Back wheel.” Four words, repeated aloud at the start line as a mantra to still the noise and summon the fighter. The track is her stage. The race is her role. And the person who wins? That’s Emma Finucane. 

What does it feel like to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal? 

Going to the Olympics for me was so special. Becoming an Olympian – it was something I’d dreamed of since I was 10 years old. Representing my country, I wasn’t sure which Olympics would be my first – Paris, maybe LA – because of my age, and the team was really established. But I made it into the team. 

Going to the Olympics was so special – riding the track, seeing the rings on the track for the first time. I loved it. I made so many memories at the Olympics. The first day was the team sprint. I knew in training the girls – we’d been going really well, and we had huge ambitions. You don’t want to go to the Olympics just to compete. We wanted to win. But there’s a big difference between wanting to win and actually doing it. It was such a seamless day. It’s really hard to explain. It just all went to plan. 

We barely spoke that day because we were so dialled in to what we needed to do. Our warm-ups, our schedules, everything just worked. In that final, I remember having red mist. I was like, I want this. I want to win this medal. And I knew the girls next to me – we all had the same goal.  

I’m the third rider, so when I looked up at the board and saw a world record and that we’d won, I just couldn’t believe it. I celebrated with my family, I put my hands in the air. It goes too quickly sometimes – we’re on to the next race already. But that moment is so special. It’s one I’ll never forget. You just want to cherish that and bottle it up and keep it forever. And I will. That gold medal, for me, was the highlight of my career so far. 

Where is the medal? 

The medal is currently, I think, by my bed. So, Matty’s [Finucane’s boyfriend is fellow GB cyclist Matthew Richardson] mum made a pouch for us for Christmas. He got three and I got three. So it’s in a safe little pouch. But yeah, they’re with me. 

What is the difference between the Olympics and every other event, even something like the World Championships? 

The Olympics is the pinnacle of track cycling. It’s everyone’s dream. It’s huge. And for me, experiencing it for the first time, I saw how much media attention there was. The build-up to the Olympics is so different to any other bike race. It’s huge. 

We were in our little bubble at the Games, so focused on what we were doing, and I remember afterwards I came out of it and people were like, “Oh, we saw you on TV.” You don’t realise how much of the world is watching the Olympics.  

You never have that with the World Championships. It’s normally just people who watch cycling. So yeah, the Olympics – I felt how special it was because of the attention, because of the media, because of the kit you’re wearing. You have the rings on your kit and things like that. It’s another level. I see why people crave that Olympic feeling. My teammate Katie loves the Olympics. She’s like, “I’m an Olympic rider.” Because you get such a high from it. I’ve never experienced a high from competing on that level, and then the come down afterwards. 

Yes, you get that at the World Championships, yes you get that at the races but the Olympics, it’s the build-up, it happens, and afterwards you’re like, “That’s four years.” We’ve got four years to wait for that special moment, or four years to compete on that stage. So it is different. I learned so much from that feeling and how big it is. 

You were stepping into the unknown because it was your first Olympics. Did you know and feel, going into it, that you would thrive and rise to the occasion? 

That’s a good question. I think so. When I was a young girl going to see the Olympics, for me, the first time I was like, I just want to experience it. I don’t know why I thought like this, but I was like, “Oh, I’ll experience it. I might be mid-pack.” For some reason, I just wanted to go to the Olympics. I didn’t think that at my first Olympics I’d be going in as a current world champion, going in with such an established team in the team sprint, who had just won the past two Nations Cups. At 21 years old, I didn’t think that’s how my Olympic debut would be. 

Obviously, it’s the dream. You want to go there and be competitive and try to win medals. I’d say I understood how to balance the media, how much I gave and how much I took from what they were saying and I stayed focused on my own success. I was really clear going into the Olympics about what success looked like to me. I wanted to be an Olympian, and I wanted to be true to myself. I knew my friends and family loved me no matter what I did on the track. 

I was really clear on my processes. Obviously, I wanted to win three gold medals. That’s my goal as an athlete. That’s your goal. It’s just about how you put it into perspective with the media and what they’re saying. Yes, take confidence from it, like I did – people were saying really lovely things about me. But I also knew I had a job to do. And I knew that if I got too distracted by that, I could get really overwhelmed and not get the results that I got. 

So yeah, I definitely learned a lot about myself at the Olympics; how to be mentally switched on and off. I raced for seven days, which is a really long time. There’s so much learning from it, and I think that’s how you become a better athlete for the next one. So in LA, I’ve learned from Paris—what to do, what not to do, and what I’ve taken away from it.  

Do you think the next Olympics will be easier or more difficult as a physical and psychological process? And can you think of anything that you’ll do differently? 

Physically, I think when you get to the Games, the physical part is actually really easy because you’ve got four years of work in the bank. You’ve worked so hard for this. You trust your coach, you trust yourself. That’s something I really learned in Paris. I was physically in the best shape of my life. 

Mentally, though, that’s something I struggled with in Paris. When I got to the seventh day, I was like, it sounds awful, but I was like, I want this to be over. And that’s something in LA I really want to work on: how do I get myself in the best place possible for those seven days to perform at the best level? 

With track sprinting, I’m competing for 30 seconds, and I need to be focused for the warm-up, which is two hours before the racing, the cool-down, the next race. That’s something in LA I think I’ll learn to do better: how to be on those sixth and seventh days, how to mentally be fresh and ready. Instead of maybe wanting to go home, I’ll be like, I’m here for gold medals. 

That’s something I’ve really learned about myself. And I think you can only learn that if you’ve done it. We try to replicate that in training as much as we can, but when you get to the Olympics, you can’t replicate how big the media is—the lights, the shows, the crowd. 

So yeah, that’s something I’ll definitely work on leading into LA. I’m even working on it now. And there are so many events between now and then that you can still work on that—like the World Championships, which are over seven days. That’s something you can trial things in. But yeah, there are a few things I’d change. 

And specifically for the next Olympics, do you already have your targets? Have you kept them to yourself or have you vocalised them? 

Yeah, I guess my targets will always be like they were going into Paris. I want to win three gold medals. And I’m not shy of saying that, because I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be trying to get to the next Olympics if I wasn’t. 

That’s something I’m working towards now, three years out. But ultimately, it is a long journey, and I am still young. I think this early part of the cycle, we go back to the drawing board. What do I need to improve on, what did we learn from Paris—and then we’ll progress to racing. 

Then two years out, you want to qualify. It’s such a long process, and I’ve never done a four-year cycle. So that will be new in itself. But yeah, I have big dreams. I have big goals. And it’s something I’m working towards. 

In the meantime, I have smaller goals, like the World Championships is every year, the European Championships is every year. So there are smaller goals in between. But yeah, LA is huge, and I’m excited for it. 

Let’s move to performance. If we looked at your training data from your first year as an elite athlete and compared it with last year, what differences would we see?  

The differences from my first year on the programme, getting on when I was 18, to probably the last year, are quite big. I’d say when I first came onto the programme, I had an endurance background. I wasn’t a punchy sprinter. I needed to get stronger in the gym, for one. Gym for me is huge. I’m not genetically the strongest person, and I sometimes struggle to put on muscle. 

So for me, that first year, I was in the gym 90% of the time. I needed to gain muscle. I needed to get bigger to be able to come onto the track and produce power. Ultimately, our goal is to sprint so you need bigger legs to produce more power so you go faster. That’s the ultimate goal. 

So those first few years, I was in the gym a lot. I wasn’t racing as much because I needed to stay here and have consistent training. Then last year, I got into a place where I was the strongest I’ve ever been. My legs were the biggest they’ve ever been. I did a lot more racing because I was in that place where I could. I was stronger, so I could go to more races and learn that side of it as well. 

Yeah, looking back, I’ve never actually looked at it like that. I am a completely different person to who I was four years ago. When I moved onto the programme at 18, I didn’t know how to cook. I didn’t know how to clean. I had literally just moved out. Now, I live with a housemate. I do everything myself. 

So yeah, big changes. Not just on the bike, but off the bike too. Younger me—I don’t know if she’d think I’d be where I am now. But yeah, it’s nice to think of it like that. 

If we look at what you’re doing in the gym now compared to your first year on the programme, what does that difference in performance look like?  

The gym for me has been a really big journey. Coming into the programme, I hated the gym. I hated how I couldn’t physically see what I was doing, or how I couldn’t lift as much as the other girls could. But I loved riding my bike. 

I knew that for us, it’s 50% gym work and 50% bike. That’s what makes us sprinters. And I knew how important the gym was, so I learned – not to love it – but to find my little niches, to find what worked for me. 

I started squatting when I got on the programme, but I had a few issues with my knee and back, so I had to stop that and moved on to trap bar and leg press, which really, really works for me. When I got on the programme, I was lifting maybe 75 to 80 kilos, and now I’m lifting about 130 kilos. So there’s been a massive shift. It’s taken time to get there, but I’ve seen that shift. 

Even with leg press—we do a lot of single-leg and double-leg leg press—and the shift in that has been huge. So yeah, the gym has definitely been a journey. It’s something I’m still working on, like, what else can I do in the gym? I’ll be spending a lot more time in there again. Can I start squatting again? Can I start deadlifting? Can I start cleaning? Are there other exercises I can incorporate? Three years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. 

So yeah, I’m in a really good place, strength-wise. It’s exciting to see how that progresses. I’ll learn to love the gym eventually. 

You’re obviously in a sport where milliseconds count for everything. Have you made any adjustments in the gym that have had a noticeable impact on your performance on the track? 

Our sport comes down to bike tyres’ worth of difference. Milliseconds. Or decisions that you’ve made – wrong decisions, right decisions – in that 30 seconds. The gym has definitely helped me. 

I never really used to be a big accelerator. I was a bit of a slow burner. I’d take a while to get up to speed. But things like plyometrics and jumping, being more aggressive, moving weight quickly. That’s really helped me become more aggressive on the bike. It’s made me accelerate better, so I can use that to my advantage when I’m racing. 

A couple of years ago, I couldn’t have a slower race because I didn’t have that punch or speed. I liked to get the race going, and I got way too predictable. People would be like, “Oh, I’m racing Emma – she just gets the race going really quickly.” That was my only tool. 

I wanted to add more tools to my basket. I wanted people to race me and be like, “What is she going to do? Can she accelerate? Is she going to do this?” I’m definitely still learning. I’m not the best in the world at it at all but I have more tools now because of the gym. I’m more explosive. The exercises in the gym have helped me add those tools. I’m still adding more, but I’ve gained more muscle, my legs are bigger, I’m more explosive, I can do more on the track and that’s exciting. 

I love racing my bike, and I want to perform. I want people to watch me and say, “I love how she races.” I love racing so, yeah, it’s definitely helped me, and it will continue to help me. 

You’re constantly looking for any advantage you can find. Where have you found it through training? 

Our sport is all about finding those small margins, and I’ve definitely found a lot of small margins already in my career. In the four years I’ve been on the programme, I’ve dropped my flying 200. When I got on, I was probably going 11.0, and in Paris I went 10.0. That’s a huge drop for me. 

We’re constantly finding those small margins. Our racing comes down to tiny things. But for me, I think I’ve found a lot of those margins on the mental side. That might sound silly. Yes, I’ve progressed physically. I’m stronger, I can lift more, and that’s helped me perform more on the bike. But mentally, too. 

I remember two years ago, before I became world champion, I was crying in the toilets because I’d never been in that position before. I didn’t know how to perform or control everything. At the Olympics, yes, I still cried because I was so nervous but I learned how to let it out before I raced. When I got on the track, I was focused. I found those margins because my brain was ready. 

Yes, toward the last days I did struggle a bit more, but that’s something I’ll work on. That’s where I’ve found the margins; how to warm up properly and efficiently. I like to warm up over two hours. I like to do my process: my first set is turbo, then I get off and do the next thing. I’m not even thinking about racing yet. We like to have those processes so that when I’m on the line, I’m not thinking about winning because I need to do everything right to win. 

Those little things have helped me find small margins. Yes, the gym has helped. Yes, the track work has helped. Physically, if you get in the best place, that’s amazing. But mentally, you need to get there too. They both work hand in hand. That’s something I’m still working on. 

Not many people talk about that side. They just say, “Oh, I’m in the best shape of my life.” But it’s mental too. You can be in the zone for 10 hours. That’s draining. That’s really hard. There are lights and everything. So that’s something I’m working on. 

You mentioned earlier that you’re a human being with human emotions. Have you now learned how to turn those emotions on and off at will? 

Yeah. Obviously, we are humans. I’m not a robot just riding my bike. I have emotions. That’s something I’ve worked on with my coach. 

After I won the World Championships, I didn’t want to sprint anymore. I hated it. There was so much pressure on myself. When you win the World Championships, you get the jersey and you race in it for a year. People look at you and go, “That’s the world champion. Is she going to win?” And I felt like, “I’m not ready to be a world champion. I shouldn’t be in this jersey. I don’t fill the boots of whoever’s won it before.” I really struggled with that. 

My coach helped me deal with the pressure and reminded me that I do this because I love riding my bike. That’s something I’m still working on. 

So do you feel like managing your emotions – being able to switch them on and off – has become part of your process now? 

Yeah. At the World Championships, learning how to control switching on and off was something I really had to work on. Me and my coach came up with a scale. He’d say, “When you’re racing, you need to be at 10. You need to be focused and ready.” But I could race 10 times in a day, and you can’t be at 10 the whole day you’ll be mentally drained by the final. 

So we had this scale. He’d come up to me and say, “Right now, you’re out of 10. You need to get really aggressive. You’re racing.” And then afterwards he’d say, “You’re at a one or two. You’ve got two hours until your next race. Chill out. Go outside, talk to your family.” 

That really worked for me. Especially at the Olympics, when I raced for seven days. You can’t switch on for seven days straight. When you come back to the hotel, you need to distract yourself. I’d watch YouTube, talk to my family, FaceTime people, just switch off. It’s easier said than done, because you’re at the Olympics and everything’s crazy. But it’s something I’m still working on. 

It’s definitely been really good to have that tool. For me, that scale works, and it’s something I’ll keep using. 

Obviously, you’re still very young yourself, but what advice would you give, particularly on the psychological side, to someone just starting out in their career? 

Advice I’d give to someone starting out in sprinting or coming into the sport, maybe they’re nervous for a race, because it is so exposed. It’s just two of you on the track, and you’re sprinting. It’s quite scary. 

I’d say make sure you know what success looks like for you. Be really clear on that. Make sure you’re doing it because you enjoy it. Remember when you were younger and riding your bike in the mud, and you loved it because it was fun. 

I know it sounds weird, but at the Olympics I kept saying to myself, “It’s just a race.” Like, it’s literally just a bike race. I race my bike all the time. Yes, there are rings involved, and yes, it’s on a bigger scale but it is just a bike race at the end of the day. 

You do it because you love it. Your family comes to watch and support you. That’s the advice I’d give to anyone; enjoy racing your bike, and the results will come. And if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. 

You’ve been using Remaker, which gives you real time feedback on key training and performance metrics, in your training. What impact has it had?  

It’s a really good tool to use. It’s something that’s really new in the gym for us. We never really had a tool that helped us gauge weight, or efficiency, or how much we’re lifting. Obviously, you can see the weight on the bar, but Remaker gives you more detail. 

Before using Remaker, the gym was really tough for me. Like I said before, I really struggled in the gym. I didn’t find it fun. I couldn’t see myself progressing, I couldn’t see how I was getting better, and I just didn’t really enjoy it. It felt quite monotonous, and I love riding my bike. I love riding track. I just love going fast, I guess. 

But now that Remaker has been introduced, and the insights are so clear, I can see my progression really easily. It makes the gym so much more fun. I can see how quickly I’m lifting weight, how I’m progressing from session to session, which makes it more engaging, which makes me want to go to the gym more, ultimately, because I can see that progression so easily on my phone. 

It just makes things easier, and I enjoy it a lot more now because of that. It’s all really accessible. It logs my weight, it logs what I do, how heavy I’m lifting, how quickly. And when I go into the gym next time, I want to try and beat that. I have little goals now. That’s what makes it more exciting for me because on the track, I have goals, and now in the gym, I have goals too, because they’re on my phone. 

What’s important to track beyond just weight, as far as you’re concerned? 

Speed. Velocity. In the gym, strength is obviously really important. We track weight easily, but I don’t lift the heaviest weights. For us, what matters is moving weight quickly. Velocity is key – how quickly we move the weight. With Remaker, when you connect it to a bar or when it’s on you, you can see that velocity. We track that really well. 

Yes, you need to lift heavy, but we also need to move our bodies really quickly on the track. So we try to replicate that in the gym and we try to move weight quickly. Remaker makes it a lot easier to track that. Then, in the next session, you can see your progression or set targets. You just put it into the app and try to meet those targets. It’s a really good way to show progression, not just by weight, but through other elements as well. 

Has it changed the way you see a gym session? 

It has meant that now I go into the gym with performance targets. I feel much clearer on what I’m doing, and I come out with a goal. As a bike rider, I love having goals. I love seeing progression. Remaker has made the gym session a lot more performance-based. I have targets to hit now in the gym. I have visual goals. I have things I want to work on. 

As a cyclist, I’ve always had those targets on the track. Now, having that same structure in the gym makes it way more appealing to me. It makes it more enjoyable. It makes me work harder because there’s a clear goal and if I don’t hit it, I’m really aware of it. Before, I might just lift a weight and think, “OK, that felt heavy,” or, “I couldn’t go heavier.” But now there are other targets. It has been such a game changer for me.