Becoming a double Olympic champion hasn’t sunk in yet for Katie Archibald – she’ll have to check Wikipedia first. 

Riding alongside Laura Kenny, Archibald completely controlled the first-ever Olympic women’s madison as the British duo cruised to a victory that means a second gold medal – following team pursuit success at Rio 2016 – belongs to the cyclist from Milngavie. 

The madison – a cycling ‘relay’ with hand-slings and crashes aplenty – is the most unpredictable, chaotic, impossible-to-control event the sport has to offer. Except when ridden by Archibald and Kenny apparently. 

With tactics honed by racing against GB’s men’s under-23 and junior squads, the British pair dominated from the off at the Izu Velodrome, winning the first sprint and then an unprecedented ten of the 12 throughout the race. 

They rode at the front and avoided the crashes that littered the race – one of which took out their main rivals the Netherlands at one point – to triumph with a mammoth 78 points ahead of Denmark (35) and the Russian Olympic Committee (26). 

History was made and they’ll always be the first winners of the women’s madison at an Olympic Games, something the Scot is keen to see in black and white.

“I’m looking forward to going home and seeing if someone has updated the Wikipedia page,” said Archibald.  

“You look at the records and the first one at the top is 1908 or whatever. Now it will be 2021 for the women’s madison, right at the top there. 

“People will have to scroll past Great Britain – Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald – and I think that’s something pretty cool.” 

Pretty cool indeed and the dominant victory wouldn’t have happened without podium women’s endurance coach Monica Greenwood making sure the pair had plenty of madison race experience under their belt. 

It’s an event that is rarely contested outside of major championships, so Greenwood asked her husband Ben, who coaches the academy and under-23 teams at British Cycling, to donate some of his riders to provide live race opposition in practice. 

It was a move that paid dividends, as Archibald and Kenny looked far more comfortable in the format than any of their rivals. 

"I've never wanted something so much and I've never been so nervous,” said 27-year-old Archibald. 

"We've been really clinical in our approach to this, none of this would have happened without Monica [Greenwood]. We had a change of coach last year, totally overhauled our entire approach to this event. 

"I feel like we're going after the all-round at this track Olympics spreading between madison and omnium and it feels so satisfying for it to come off. I've never wanted something so much.”

Thanks to National Lottery funding our Olympians and Paralympians have been able to train full time and benefit from world class facilities, technology, coaching and support teams.

This has never been more important in getting them to the start line after a turbulent year. 

Archibald wasn’t the only Scottish success at the velodrome on Friday, as about an hour after her historic gold, Paisley’s Jack Carlin earned a battling bronze in the men’s sprint. 

Carlin had lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Harrie Lavreysen but in his best-of-three bronze medal contest against Denis Dmitriev of the Russian Olympic Committee, the 24-year-old Scot showed his power to twice hold off his foe for a 2-0 victory. 

It means Carlin is now a double Olympic medallist after being part of the men’s team sprint squad that took silver earlier in the Games. 

"It was a tough day. I didn't have the same amount in the legs as I did yesterday but I gave it my all and managed to come away with something,” he said. 

"I finished 20th at the Worlds last year and I said to myself that I'd never be in that place again. We focused a lot on the individual event in this extra year and it paid off."

No one does more to support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes than National Lottery players, who raise around £36 million each week for good causes including grassroots and elite sport. Discover the positive impact playing the National Lottery has at http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtags: #TNLAthletes #MakeAmazingHappen