'Diamond in the dirt' - Kye Whyte on why Olympic support was 'kind of bigger' than silver BMX medal

Olympic BMX silver medallist Kye Whyte says the support he received at home was «kind of bigger» than his medal — and described himself as a «diamond in the dirt». Whyte won Team GB’s first-ever BMX medal at the Olympics as he took silver at Tokyo 2020. Ad This year he won silver at the UCI BMX World Championships and gold at the European BMX Championships.

BMX'I'm in shock right now' — A stunned Stancil wins the world BMX championship31/07/2022 AT 15:51 Reflecting on his Olympic success, Whyte told Eurosport’s Power of Sport: “I said before the final, I want to bring something home. “I just want to bring something home to the club, for myself and family. To actually provide on that, it was great.

«I'm not really an emotional person, but there was a live screen. It was five in the morning in England. There was all my family and all the BMX club kids, all their parents, just all in this one room at the BMX track, all screaming and shouting.

I looked at it and was like ‘oh wow’. “I nearly cried. To see that was kind of bigger than the medal, really.

I heard a lot of stories while I was out there, that same morning maybe 30-50 people, new people, turned up at the club to sign up. “I feel like it put Peckham on the map a little bit. Obviously coming from the place I come from, it’s not a great upbringing, it’s not a great place to live, but I feel like you can't judge someone where they come from really.

There's always a diamond in the dirt I guess. I think that’s the analogy I look at. “I come from a little place in London called Peckham and I went all the way to Tokyo and got the first-ever GB medal.” Whyte wins silver at World Championships Stancil claims World Championship victory Whyte started riding BMX as a youngster