Team GB Olympian reveals reason she’s refusing to attend opening ceremonies
The 2024 Olympics are set to begin in Paris later this week, and Olympian Neah Evans has shared why she doesn't plan on attending the opening ceremony, as she admitted she was 'sorry to burst the bubble'.
33-year-old Neah, a track cyclist, helped lead Team GB to a silver victory in 2021 (the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.)
The upcoming Olympics have already been shrouded in controversy following the news that Charlotte Dujardin, who was set to compete as an equestrian for Team GB, has been forced to pull out.
This is due to an alarming video being released that showed Charlotte whipping a horse 'more than 24 times in one minute'.
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The 39-year-old athlete has been provisionally suspended and will not compete at this year's Olympics.
Neah, who is Scottish and a two-time world champion, has revealed her reasoning for missing the opening ceremony - something she has done in the past too - in an interview with Sportshour.
She said: "This will be my fourth major championships and I haven't yet been to a single opening ceremony.
"So far, I've always come away with a good result. It's a no brainer.
"Some people, they get to the Olympics and that's their target. They've got to the Olympics and they can just relax, enjoy it and they just get involved with all the stuff around it.
"Whereas I guess I've been very privileged and always been a situation where I can challenge for medals so it's very performance-based."
"And that then means you go, 'no'. Because, obviously there's a lot of standing about and a lot of waiting. Sorry to burst the bubble."
Ultimately, Neah opts to remain in the best physical shape possible for the forthcoming competition.
She added: "You are standing for like hours and hours and hours to get in the right place so they can parade you in at the exactly the right moment and that's not [good for elite] performance, basically."
She referred to herself an an 'Olympic myth buster' on BBC World Service, explaining how she will be spending the evening of the ceremony in her own way.
She said: "We've had a memo that we're going to take our ceremony kit because you get a special opening ceremony kit and I think we're going to do something on the evening, that we'll probably go to dinner in that kit as a like a nod to it, if you like.
"We go to Celtic Manor [in Wales] for a holding camp and we stay in quite luxurious lodges."
Kya Buller