By Will Castle, Sportsbeat

TEENAGE cycling starlet Evie Strachan says watching her friends thrive at Paris 2024 has only further lit the fire within her to achieve her own Olympic dream.

Strachan, 17, is only in the early stages of her career but is already making waves on the senior scene, representing Great Britain at the UCI MTB World Championships in August.

She also had the pleasure of cheering on some of her British Cycling pals at this summer’s Olympic Games, as the likes of Ella Maclean-Howell and namesake Evie Richards made their mark in the French capital.

But after watching the Games from home as a fan, she is now even more desperate to be on the road riding amongst her teammates on the biggest stage of them all at LA 2028.

“It was really good watching the women's cycling, especially because I know some of the riders there, so it was really cool to kind of see,” said Strachan, after being selected by Aldi – the official supermarket partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB and official partners of Team GB Nearest & Dearest Programme, supporting athletes’ families – and SportsAid as part of their Rising Stars programme.

“I felt really excited to watch them do such a big event and I really wanted them to do well, so that just made the event much more enjoyable to watch.

“It definitely makes me feel like I really want to be where they are next time it comes around.

“I'm definitely hoping to do a lot more international races. This season I've got a bit more of a grip doing those international and World Cup races.

“I think doing a couple more of those to improve my results and then just like keeping up with the training and improving in all the areas where I know I can do better will hopefully allow me to reach that level.”

Strachan is one 1,000 athletes supported each year by SportsAid, who provide crucial financial support as well as offering development opportunities through workshops and visits.

Strachan has also reaped the rewards of SportsAid’s partnership with Aldi, who also provide vital media training and nutrition sessions, as well as funding the Parent Pathway Series - a series of tailored online sessions for parents and guardians to ensure SportsAid athletes are getting the best family support they can.

While the grant has been immensely valuable to Strachan in funding her progression, it’s what she has learnt on the mentality side of things that stands out to her - discovering how to live the life of an elite athlete.

“They’ve really helped through all the workshops,” Strachan added. “There's some workshops on like sleep, that was a really helpful one, and nutrition, which I think really targets areas which are often forgotten about.

“I think it's so useful because it's quite easy to just be like, ‘I'm just going to train and train’, but there’s so many other things to improve performance. It definitely makes you feel more professional but also helps you overall with your own performance.

“The workshops are really helpful, as well as obviously the grant. That’s been really useful to help me keep up with equipment, like updating it and making sure it's all in good spec for racing, as well as helping me save up to get out to some more races next year.

“That’ll help me to get some more points, which will be really good for my next season coming.”

Aldi and SportsAid are now in their third year of partnership. In 2024, they are supporting six local athletes, who will be part of SportsAid and Aldi promotional campaign, receive enhanced financial Aid Award, a monthly fruit and vegetable voucher, a private tour of Team GB’s Kitting Out experience and a media training and nutrition sessions. For more information visit https://www.sportsaid.org.uk/partners/our-partners/aldi