Andy Burnham leads calls for 'role model' Sarah Storey to be nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Dame Sarah came home from her ninth Paralympic Games this year with her 18th and 19th gold medals in cycling, making her the most decorated British Paralympian of all time. And that’s not even her latest achievement. Fresh from her success in Paris, she went on to win her 39th world title at the UCI World Championships in Zurich in September for the C5 road race.

Off the race track, Dame Sarah also works alongside Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as the region’s Active Travel Commissioner, improving transport infrastructure and encouraging people to “walk, wheel and cycle” on their daily journeys.

All this makes her one of the city’s most inspirational Mancunians. As Burnham himself put it: “I couldn't think of a better role model.”

Speaking to journalists upon Dame Sarah’s return to Manchester with her medals, the Mayor was making the case for her nomination for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. “To any young person out there, things won't always go as smoothly as possible, you might have change course at some point, but to show that, with that resilience and that determination, and my god, Sarah's got that in such massive quantities,” he said.

“A brilliant role model, somebody who leads from the front, leads by example and that's why we're so lucky to have her working with us in Greater Manchester.”

Having left for training camps in July and competed in the Paralympics and UCI World Championship back-to-back, Dame Sarah said it is “dream come true” to be back in Manchester with her gold medals.

She said: “I allowed myself a little dream that I could come back with four gold medals. But you focus on the process of trying to get to the start line of each race in the best shape possible. You can't control the fact that everyone else is after the same results, so you just have to focus on what you do pedal stroke by pedal stroke and that's exactly what I did.”

Sarah began her career as a swimmer, competing in her first Paralympic Games in 1992, aged 14. But she knew wanted to be an athlete after watching her first Olympic and Games aged six.

She said: “From watching those games I just wanted to be an athlete and an athlete for as long as possible. I'm doing a pretty good job, 32 years later. It's hugely exciting, there's a huge amount of work, there's a huge amount of adrenaline that goes into it, and worry as well as ambition.”

Now aged 46, the champion cyclist is not discounting competing in her tenth Paralympics in 2028, but at the moment, she’s more focused on enjoying the successes of her most recent achievements.

Dame Sarah said: “If there's one thing that I've learned as I've got older, you need to take the time to appreciate what you've achieved, because an all manner of things can happen in the next four years, and I need to appreciate the fact that I did such a good job this year that it was, literally, a dream come true.”

This does not mean she will be taking it easy, though. Dame Sarah is already back at work with the Active Travel Commission, helping the mayor’s office and Transport for Greater Manchester move forward with the rollout of the Bee Network across the region. For her, this work goes hand in hand with her sporting career.

She said: “It's really important and a real privilege to be able to work at the entire spectrum, the rainbow of sport. The activity and health side of sport feeds into transport because we need more people to have the opportunity to walk, wheel or cycle.

“To be able to impact and positively influence that at one end of the rainbow, all the way through to being able to stand on the top of the podium, wearing the rainbow jersey, for me it's that huge privilege, and along that way, on that path, I get to work with young people who are doing physical activity and health, but also in sport.”

For any aspiring athletes out there, Dame Sarah has some advice. She said: “The most important thing is that you enjoy what you're doing and that you find the thing that makes you feel excited about going down to that club in the first place.

“I didn't know I enjoyed cycling when I first went down to the Velodrome to try riding, but I quickly got the bug of cycling and I've just not stopped riding my bike ever since, and obviously that led to racing and the rest is history, as they say.”