A quarter of a century separates the two women on the Sports Personality of the Year shortlist.
‘I am the granny on the list,’ laughs 44-year-old Dame Sarah Storey, who has been nominated alongside Emma Raducanu, the 19-year-old favourite to win the award.
‘It’s amazing to think that I’m still competing and we are peers, even though we are from a different generation.’
Should Sunday’s public vote go the way the bookies expect, US Open champion Raducanu would become the youngest SPOTY winner since Michael Owen in 1998, as well as the first female since Zara Phillips – now Tindall – in 2006.
The youngest in the show’s long history is swimmer Ian Black, who was 17 when he scooped the prize in 1958, while the oldest was also 44, golfer Dai Rees in 1957.
‘It is an omen,’ smiles Storey. ‘The crazy thing about this number 44 is that Emma broke a dry spell of 44 years for a British woman to win a Grand Slam. The last time was 1977 and that was the year I was born.’
By the time Raducanu was born in 2002, Storey – then Sarah Bailey and a swimmer not a cyclist – had already appeared at three Paralympics and won 11 medals, including five golds.
Dame Sarah Storey, 44, won a record 17th Paralympic medal of her career this summer by winning the women’s C4-5 road race at the Tokyo games
Storey, who was born without a functioning left hand, won her first Paralympic gold medal at the Barcelona games in 1992 as a swimmer
Storey embraces her elder status, tweeting #doingitfortheover40s when the SPOTY shortlist was announced on Monday. But she also wants to remind us she was once a teenage sensation herself.
‘When Emma won in New York, she was the same age I was in Atlanta in 1996,’ recalls the mother of two, who actually won her first two gold medals four years earlier in Barcelona when she was only 14.
‘I had also just done my A-levels and got my results on the poolside in Atlanta, then went on to win three gold medals the following week in those Games.
‘I got my first mobile phone after I won that fifth gold medal in ‘96 – one of those Nokia bricks – because I was going to university.
‘I remember watching Emma win and being like, “Wow”. Realising the age she was brought back all of those memories and it was lovely to be able to share them with my daughter Louisa and husband Barney, who I didn’t know at that point.’
Storey is one of the contenders for the SPOTY award along with Emma Raducanu (above)
Watching Raducanu triumph at a young age brought back happy memories for Storey
Storey watched Raducanu’s US Open victory from a hotel in London, where she was staying ahead of the ParalympicsGB homecoming party at Wembley the following night.
It was nine days after Storey had made her own history at Tokyo 2020, winning the C4-5 road race to secure her third gold of the Games and a record 17th overall, surpassing swimmer Mike Kenny as the most successful British Paralympian of all time.
‘It’s taken some time to sink in,’ she admits. ‘The record was always a mathematical possibility for five years from Rio and I think it was perhaps a bigger thing for everybody outside than I realised.
‘It wasn’t until I got home that it really struck me. So many people told me they stayed up to watch my race in the middle of the night because that point of history was important. I will always feel very proud about that.’
Storey (centre) plans to compete at Paris 2024 and has not ruled out Los Angeles 2028 – when she will be in her fifties
Storey’ story, though, still has at least another chapter yet to go. She has already confirmed plans to compete at Paris 2024 and has not ruled out riding in her 50s at Los Angeles 2028.
‘I have no idea whether I’ve reached my peak yet, but I’d like to try and find out,’ she adds. ‘Age is just a number if you enjoy what you’re doing and you make good decisions and stay fit and healthy.
‘I was asking my coach, “Is there something I’ve done?” and he said, “You listen to your body and you enjoy what you’re doing”.
‘A number of people have said to me they’re really inspired by the idea that you don’t have to worry about how old you are. It’s really cool to have the vast majority of the general population saying, “Just go for it, girl”.’