London 2012 Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins on his cycling gold medal
Bradley Wiggins was left to reflect on becoming the first man to win the Tour de France and Olympic gold in the same year as he reaching the peak of his sporting career.
After winning a fourth Olympic gold in a third different event with victory in the 44-kilometre time trial at Hampton Court, the realisation hit Wiggins that no sporting achievement will surpass the last six weeks of his life.
The 32-year-old, who on July 22 became the Tour’s first British winner, said: “There is almost slight melancholy. I realised on the podium that that’s probably it for me.
“To go out there and put a performance like that together nine days after the Tour and win another Olympic title in another event, it is never, ever going to get any better than that. It’s been an amazing six weeks.”
An imperious performance saw Wiggins claim a seventh Olympic medal in all, surpassing Sir Steve Redgrave’s British record haul.
Given five-time medallist Sir Chris Hoy is competing in two events in the velodrome, Wiggins’ standard is now set to stand until Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Wiggins added: “To be mentioned in the same breath as people like Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy is an honour. Ultimately it’s all about the gold medals once you’ve been Olympic champion.
“There was only one colour today. The most important statistic is number four [Olympic gold medals] for me and not number seven.”
Wiggins could target a fifth in Rio, depending on the reaction of his wife Cath.
He added: “I could envisage, depending on what my wife thinks, going back to the track in the team pursuit where it all started and trying to win a fifth. But that’s a long way off.”
World champion Tony Martin of Germany was second, 42 seconds behind, with Wiggins’ compatriot Chris Froome third.
Froome joined Wiggins on the podium for the second time in less than two weeks after finishing second in the Tour.
London 2012 Olympics News: Rebecca Adlington wins 800m Freestyle heat
Denmark’s Lotte Friis, Adlington’s biggest rival for gold tomorrow night, wins heat four of the 800m freestyle in 8:21.89, with Boglarka Kapas of Hungary and Andreina Pinto Perez of Venezuela joint-second on the same time of 8:26.43. Can you imagine a swim-off in the 800m freestyle?
“For all of the talk about British swimmers struggling to hit personal best times this week, China’s Xin Xin hugely underperformed in the fourth heat.
“Fifth quickest in the world this year with a time of 8 minutes and 22 seconds, but she finished over 18 seconds off that pace! Adlington is absolutely bossing this race with a healthy lead over Lauren Boyle of the USA at the 500m stage. It’s only a heat but the crowd are going nuts.
It’s a procession in the pool for Rebecca Adlington as she wins in 8:21.78. Lauren Boyle is second, some four seconds behind Adlington, who qualifies fastest for the final, 11 hundredths of a second ahead of her archrival Lotte Friis. Order the takeaway now, you are staying in tomorrow night for what could be Britain’s first 2012 swimming gold.
London 2012 Olympics News:U.S. Men’s Basketball Takes On Nigeria
While teams such as Nigeria want to test themselves against LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, they may have to settle for Kevin Love and Andre Iguodala.
U.S. Olympic men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski already knows what his superstars can do, and doesn’t need to be reminded in the kind of blowouts his team routinely racks up during pool play.
What he needs to find out is what would happen if they weren’t available, when the Americans were playing against teams that could beat them.
“You don’t know who it’s going to be that might help us win the gold medal,” Krzyzewski said. “I mean, if you look at look at the gold-medal game against Spain in ’08, Tayshaun Prince gave us eight points in an abbreviated role that were huge for us, because LeBron and Kobe had two quick fouls each in that game.
“And you know if you don’t give these guys that level of experience over an extended period of time, then they may not be ready for those moments, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
With that in mind, Krzyzewski gave plenty of time to his subs on Tuesday in a 110-63 victory over Tunisia. Iguodala’s 20 minutes were one more than James played, while Bryant got on the floor for just 9 minutes, half the time Love received while tying for the team lead with 16 points.
The bench even started the second half, Krzyzewski insisting that was his plan all along and not that he was angry with the first unit. He will probably do plenty of tinkering Thursday night against the Nigerians.
Even without playing their best basketball, the Americans are big and bad as advertised – romping through their first two games at the London Olympics by an average of 37 points.
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