Emma Finucane

Emma Finucane
	Finucane in 2024
Personal information
Born	22 December 2002 (age 22); Carmarthen, Wales, United Kingdom
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Team information
Current team	Brother UK-Orientation marketing
Discipline	Track cycling
Role	Rider
Rider type	sprint, time trial, keirin
Medal record
Women's track cycling
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games
World Championships
European Championships
Representing Wales
Commonwealth Games

Emma Finucane (/fɪˈnuːkən/ fin-OO-kən; born 22 December 2002) is a Welsh track cyclist.^[4]^[5] She is the 2023 and 2024 UCI world champion in women's individual sprint, the third Briton (after Victoria Pendleton and Becky James) and second Welsh woman (after James) to win the world title. In the Paris 2024 Olympics, she became the first British woman to win three medals in a single Games since Mary Rand in 1964.

Cycling career

Having previously won two silver medals at the 2020 British National Track Championships, Finucane became a British champion when winning the team sprint event at the 2022 British National Track Championships. She also won a silver medal and two bronze medals at the same Championships.^[6]^[7]

Later that year, Finucane went on to win bronze medals in both the sprint and team sprint at the Commonwealth Games.^[8]

Finucane was the star of the 2023 British Cycling National Track Championships, after she won four national titles (taking her total to 5). They were the 500 m Time trial, the Sprint, the Keirin and a second team sprint title.^[9]^[10] At the 2023 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, at the Chris Hoy National velodrome, she claimed her first major title as she took gold in the women's track sprint competition — the first British woman to do so since Becky James in 2013 — beating Lea Friedrich of Germany in the final.^[11] During the flying 200 sprint qualifying she set a new British record and a new sea level record time of 10.234s.^[12]^{[circular reference]} She was also part of the British Women's Team sprint team who took silver in the same competition.

Finucane was named 2023 BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year.^[13]

At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Finucane, alongside teammates Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant, won the gold medal in the women’s team sprint. The team broke the world record three times during the event, ultimately setting the new record at 45.186 seconds in the final.^[14]^[15] She later added a bronze medal in the women's keirin.^[16]^[17]

At the 2024 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark, Finucane teamed with Capewell and Marchant to win gold in the team sprint.^[18]^[19] She went on to also win the sprint title.^[20] ^[21]

Finucane was named BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year for the second year in succession in December 2024.^[22]

Personal life

Finucane is a great niece of Irish Second World War RAF pilot Wing Commander Brendan 'Paddy' Finucane (1920–1942), who in June 1942 became the RAF’s youngest wing commander at just age 21.^[16]

Her partner is track cyclist Matthew Richardson.^[23] She lives in Manchester, the home of British Cycling, with cyclist Jessica Roberts.^[24]