Sport 18-09-2000 Cyclist Is Britain`s Olympic Hero who: Cyclist Jason Queally what: Adds Olympic silver to gold where: Sydney when: Yesterday snippet: "Jason Queally is the saviour of British cycling," says The Sun`s Pat Sheehan, "after winning an Olympic gold and silver". "It is just beginning to dawn on Jason Queally that his life has changed," writes Mike Rowbottom in The Independent. "Yesterday evening here in the dusty Sydney suburb of Bankstown, the cyclist who admits he is a shy and retiring man blinked into a battery of photographers after addingsilver to the gold he had won the previous day." Queally, a "quiet, reserved and erudite Lancastrian," has emerged as the "most unlikely but thoroughly deserving of Olympic heroes," comments Stephen Bierley in The Guardian. "Britain always had high hopes of a medal in the Olympic sprint, an event making its Olympic debut at these games. But Queally`s outstanding victory in Saturday`s 1,000-metre time-trial had rocked everybody". "As he celebrated adding a silver medal to his weekend victory in the Olympic velodrome, he paid tribute to his girlfriend Victoria Pike," says Shekhar Bhatia in The Express, "revealing that her moral and financial support had seen him through his darkest days when he was almost killed in a cycle accident." "Now 30-year-old Jason is set to become a millionaire through sponsorship and marketing opportunities," she continues. "I`ll need to get an agent now," Queally told the press yesterday. "I`ve no idea how it all works." [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!