‘A gloss on an immense effort'

Mark Phillips explains just how much of a team effort went into this result

- Pippa Roome

I’M not sure I realised how difficult it was going to be watching an Olympic Games on TV on my couch at home and then having to write about it!

I’ve been lucky enough to go to 12 Olympic Games with various different hats on – as a rider winning medals, as a rider not finishing and coming home empty-handed, as reserve rider, coach and TV commentator. Every Games is different, every Games special in its own way, some more fun than others but all creating lifelong friendships.

Tokyo will be no different. Covid has put so many extra pressures and protocols in place. What we see on TV, with riders waving to empty stadiums, is a gloss that disguises everything that has gone on behind the scenes for weeks and months to help our riders cope with unprecedented heat and humidity, on the other side of the world, under Covid restrictions.