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Hero to Hero: Olympic eventer Andrew Hoy chats to Team GB track cyclist Katy Marchant *H&H Plus*

Pippa Roome Pippa Roome

    • The seven-time eventing Olympian met the Team GB track cyclist to talk about training, competing in the heat and hopes for Tokyo

    Katy: Covid’s been a funny one – I’ve tried to make the best of a bad situation. We were at the World Championships in March 2020, the last qualification event for the Olympics, as Covid kicked in. That was a really stressful period because it was a struggle for me to get qualified as a rider without a strong team, even though I was finishing in the top five. But thankfully we got qualified, because then we came home and went into lockdown.

    I was one of those people who said, “They’re never going to cancel the Olympic Games.” But actually, not travelling for a year and having 12 months’ stress-free training has been amazing and I’ve never felt better. What about you?

    Andrew: My horse, Vassily De Lassos, is young in terms of the years left in front of him, so for me I felt it worked to my advantage. It’s given me the opportunity not to be pressured to try to get to a target point as quickly, and time to train step by step in a logical manner.

    Katy: I’ve actually ridden horses all my life, my family have horses and my sister Amy Sherrard does a little bit of British Eventing. So to a certain extent, I understand the difference between riding a bike and a horse – I appreciate the bike always does as it’s told and the horse doesn’t always! So did Covid get in the way of your preparations?

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    This exclusive feature can also be read in H&H magazine, on sale Thursday 17 June

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    Pippa Roome
    Pippa Roome

    H&H magazine editor and eventing editor
    Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
    Pippa Roome