Matt Maher: Great Scott... now it’s life in the slow lane for Helen

Little more than a month after calling time on her cycling career, the five-time Paralympic medallist is still adapting to the rhythm of a slightly more normal life.

“For 14 years I knew exactly what I was doing, every single day of the week,” she explains. “I’ve always had a goal, a target to focus on. It’s what got me up in the morning. God, it was a bloody good life.

“One month out of that and I’m already thinking: ‘I’ve got no routine!’ I’m trying to fit exercise around the hours I work. Friends and family are saying: ‘Welcome to the real world!’

“On the other hand, it is nice not having to worry about what time I go to bed anymore.”

It is not that Scott, who took her first pedal strokes to stardom as a teenager on the track at Halesowen Cycling Club, has any regrets over her decision to retire and isn’t excited by the future. Neither does she hold with the notion her new role as Paralympic foundation coach with the GB cycling term can be described as the “real world”. She enjoys it too much to consider it a job.

Any sense of unease as she finds her feet, is comfortably surpassed by a feeling of contentment at having made the right call. That said, it is interesting to learn her retirement would likely have been delayed just a while longer, were track cycling events at the Commonwealth Games actually taking place in Birmingham and not more than 100 miles away in London.

“Had that been the case, I’d probably have asked to do the Games and called it a day after that,” says Scott, who has four gold medals from the last two Commonwealth Games in her collection and was among the athletes who helped design the Team England kit for the Birmingham 2022 opening ceremony.

“It is a bit sad because I have done two Commonwealths and loved them,” she continues. “The next month will be a bit strange, with the Games approaching and knowing I won’t be competing. But there is nothing more I want.”

Knowing when to retire is a difficult decision for any athlete, not least a successful one. Scott, who raced on tandem bikes as the sighted pilot for a visually-impaired stoker, undoubtedly falls into that category. There aren’t many in the region who can match her haul of silverware, which includes six world titles and a Paralympic gold from the kilometre time trial at Rio 2016.

The latter was a title she was unable to defend in Tokyo last summer but after a difficult, occasionally tortuous preparation, the silver she claimed with Aileen McGlynn felt like a victory. Still aged just 31, Paris 2024 was very much a realistic goal but by the early months of this year, Scott knew something had changed.

“It wasn’t as though I was quitting on things in the gym. But I wasn’t being as ruthless as I had been,” she says. “I was always the person in training who would do another rep, another second. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I felt I hadn’t given 100 per cent.

“But while I never voiced it, I felt something change. I wasn’t as hungry as I had been before. Something was missing. I wasn’t getting the same buzz.”

When the opportunity to apply for the job of foundation coach came in March – and having recently completed her degree in sports science at Manchester Metropolitan University - Scott felt the stars had begun to align.

“It all fell into place at the right time. It felt like it was meant to be,” she continues. “I’ve known from a very young age I wanted to be a coach. I completed my level three track qualification more than a decade ago and I have done private coaching since, helping out on GB camps.

“Don’t get me wrong, it was sad. When I was offered the role and accepted it, there were a few tears shed. I still miss the feeling of smashing it round the velodrome in training and then dying on the floor afterward. But I never once wondered whether I had made the wrong decision. I know I’ve made the right one.”

As foundation coach, Scott works one-to-one with unfunded athletes with aspirations of getting on the full-time podium squad, organising training camps to help deliver the next generation of champions.

“It is my job to teach them how to be an athlete,” she explains. “It is exciting and the beauty of the para foundation squad is you see people progress so quickly.

“I was working with one of my athletes on the track at Derby the other week. He’s recently transferred from playing table tennis and had never done a standing start.

“To see the progression, from wobbling off the start line, to getting so good. I’ve been fortunate to have had some great coaches and now I want to provide that for others, to give them someone they can rely on.

“Winning is great but sometimes it is about more than that. First, you have to get the rest of it right.”

That last comment feels particularly pertinent. While fans will always remember the moment of victory, for successful athletes the journey is almost as rewarding as the destination. Winning paralympic gold will always be the pinnacle of Scott’s career, it is not her personal highlight.

“The wins aren’t what I remember when I think of the top moments. Instead, I think about the day-to-day,” she says.

“I think of the days I was going for one more rep on the weights at the gym, with everyone screaming at me. Or the Friday afternoon track sessions, when everyone would be wrecked but giving every last ounce of energy to every pedal rev.

“Wins are the cherry on the cake. I won’t forget those. But the work up to that moment, that is where the joy is.”