Finucane wants to be ‘unstoppable’ by 2028 Olympics

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 finished 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 he hopes to improve even more after a “dream come true” year.

“I want to win three gold medals at the next Games in Los Angeles,” he told BBC Sport Wales. “So I need to find my weaknesses.

“We’re really going to go back to square one, get back to training and the gym. The next few years will be about training, not so much about racing.

“There’s a lot of hard work behind this, but I’m really up for the challenge of seeing what else I can do in my career.

“It’s just the beginning for me, which is a little crazy to say that.”

Finucane’s year 2024 was a year of great success, but also of many lessons learned.

The most important idea was how to control his emotions, which threatened to overflow in Paris.

Finucane admits that she felt “overwhelmed” by the expectation that weighed on her shoulders and cried before the victorious team sprint final in the velodrome.

But she says expressing emotions, as well as having open conversations with her coaches and support staff, became an important part of running with a clear head.

“The excitement is that I’m preparing my body for what it’s about to do,” he explained.

“I’ve learned not to run based on emotions. You get too caught up in them. You forget how to run. You don’t have a clear process. So for me I need a clear process.”

“So I think the emotion is that I’m nervous, obviously, to compete on a world stage. Nerves for me are important and I think crying is the way I deal with that.

“I pushed limits that I didn’t even know I had, which is exciting. So there are definitely things that I’ve learned that I will take advantage of throughout my career.”

Despite his success at the Olympics and World Championships, Finucane is not one to become complacent.

In 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 didn’t go unnoticed by Finucane, but it only serves as motivation for his return to training in February.

In 2025 he will not compete in the European Championships or the National Championships and, at most, in a Track Nations Cup, as he focuses on improving behind the scenes.

After a whirlwind start to his career, Finucane is looking forward to a calmer season on the track. It will all end with the World Championships in October, though, as he will go for a third consecutive world sprint title.

The year of his dreams is over, but Finucane is already looking forward to the next chapter in his extraordinary story.