A BMX racer who was considered the favorite for a medal at the Paris Olympics said after her loss in the final: “Life goes on.”

Beth Shriever had won all six races before the last event, but was restricted from the beginning and could not recover.

The 25-year-old from Finchingfield in Essex, who won gold at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyosaid she took a week off to “think about everything” and overall she felt “good.”

She said winning a medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Games was her “next big goal.”

“Of course I was very disappointed at that moment, but it was the Olympics and there is only one winner,” she told the BBC.

“I was flying, I was in top shape and I think the fact that I was so far ahead of everyone else shocked me because I had broken my collarbone before so I had no expectations.”

Shriever crashed and has broken his collarbone in the semi-finals of the BMX Racing World Championships in May in South Carolina.

She said the fracture had not fully healed when she began competing at the Games.

When lining up for the final race, she said she chose gate six as a “safer option” because she had not been able to practice leaving the gate sufficiently due to her collarbone injury.

She hoped that as one of the outside riders she could use her speed and “come across” if she failed to get a good start.

“It just so happened that the girl on the outside had the goal of her life in the final and knocked me out immediately,” she said.

“I did my best out there. Even when I was behind, I tried to fight my way back to the front.”

Shriever, two-time world champion, last completed.

“If I hadn’t injured my collarbone, I might have been even faster. You just don’t know,” added Shriever, a former member of the Braintree BMX Club.

“I just have to keep fighting, train hard and hopefully get some results.”