'I'm horrendously competitive': Get to know GB track sprinter Sophie Capewell

Sophie Capewell is one of Great Britain's top track sprinters. She has won medals at the World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games, and became Olympic champion in Paris as part of the team sprint squad. She sat down with Cycling Weekly to reflect on her cycling journey so far. 

What was your first bike? 

It was a little, purple - I think it was sparkly - mountain bike. I started cycling really young. I raced cyclocross and stuff when I was like six. When I grew up, I did nearly every discipline, except I wasn’t allowed to do BMX. That was never on the cards, because of the danger element. I don’t think my parents would have been able to cope. 

What’s your earliest memory of watching cycling? 

It must have been a World Champs, or the Beijing Olympics, and I remember watching Chris Hoy and Vicki Pendleton. My parents were watching the sprint in the living room, and it just seemed so exciting. My dad always used to shout at the television when he got excited in a race. I just remember these people riding around a track and going really fast. I thought it was amazing. 

Who was your cycling hero? 

Growing up, it was definitely Chris Hoy and Vicki Pendleton. They were at the forefront of track sprinting when I was growing up. I think I was always destined to be a sprinter. If I could get to the end of a race, I could finish it as a sprinter, but everything else, like in cyclocross, I sank into the mud and ploughed through it. Hoy and Pendleton were absolutely tearing up the scene at that point. 

What is the best place your career has taken you so far? 

Australia. We did a camp in Brisbane in 2019, and it was just a bit surreal to turn up there and my job was to go cycle, ride in the sunshine, train really hard, and then race at the end of it. That was a bit of a ‘Wow, this is actually what I’m doing’ kind of moment. What a cool place, and what an opportunity to go halfway across the world to ride my bike. 

If you hadn’t become a cyclist, what would you have done? 

I probably would have tried to find another sport. Growing up, I was that person who did as many sports as I could. I used to swim - I swam for the county - and I used to run for county schools. I was always a sprinter. 100m or 200m running. Same in the pool, I was a 50m kind of gal. 

Aside from sport, I probably would have ended up going to uni and doing something maths or physics related. At one point, I wanted to be a research scientist, but I think I’ve strayed a little bit far from that. Sport’s such a cool way to live, and I am just horrendously competitive, so I think I would have had to have some sort of outlet for that. 

What’s the best thing about being a track sprinter? 

It’s a bit like a game. Going back to maths, it’s a bit like a problem. It’s all laid out in front of you, and you have to find a way to go fast and win. It really satisfies that competitive urge, but at the same time, you get that adrenaline, and it’s just so much fun. It’s not just riding mindlessly, it’s so complex. 

What is the proudest moment of your career so far? 

Commonwealth Games, 2022, keirin and 500m time trial. I won medals in both [silver in the keirin and bronze in the time trial]. I’d had a really tricky few years before that - I had a lot of family stuff, I lost my dad, and before that competition, I felt a little bit lost in my path. I had come up through the youth and junior ranks, gotten onto the British Cycling programme, and I’d had a really successful time, but then I had a lot of family illness. I didn’t really find my feet, and I had quite a few different coaches. It just felt really messy. I didn’t really know who I was as a rider for quite a long time. 

I hadn’t been well that week, either. I had a conversation with my coach at the time, Kaarle [McCulloch], and I found a way to bring out something in myself that I hadn’t seen for quite a long time. The way I rode, and how I executed my race, reminded me of a younger version of myself, and that was a massive confidence boost moment.