WHEN the quicksilver queen Becky James was given the nod by Team GB to pack her bags, head to Brazil and compete in her first ever Olympic Games, Abergavenny had high hopes for its most successful cycling export, but how many people expected the cycling dynamo to come away with not one but two silver medals?

Perhaps no-one except the two-wheeled sensation herself.

Despite having a career which has been plagued by injuries, health scares, and set-backs, the tenacious 24-year-old has always kept her head up, and never appeared to be wanting in the self-belief department.

James, who started cycling at the age of 11, and who cites Sir Chris Hoy as her sporting inspiration, has continued to defy expectations and bounce back from the dark depths of disappointment to dig in deep, and deliver the big performance when it matters most.

And perseverance as they say, definitely has its own reward.

After bagging a bronze medal at the UCI Track Cycling World Championship in March of this year in what she described as “the most emotional win of her career,” a taste of her first ever Olympics was definitely on the menu for James.

Following a two years force of absence from cycling due to knee and shoulder injuries, as well as enduring a cancer scare, the cycling speedster said it was both “unbelievable” and “surreal” to win a bronze medal in the keirin on her return to the Track World Championships in London.

The “surprise” medal was just the catalyst James needed to go all out on the road to Rio and as she told the Chronicle not long after, “I’m going in the right direction. Each week I’ve just seen improvements, week in week out.

“I’m not looking any further than Rio right now and if I’m fortunate enough to get picked this June then getting a palace on the podium is definitely the goal.”

Needless to say, when dreams of Olympia became a reality, the cycling sensation was over the moon and a jubilant James confessed, “I’m really honoured to have been selected for my first Olympic Games, it’s something I’ve been dreaming of since I first started cycling.”

However, dreaming of something is one thing and actually doing it is a whole different ball game.

Yet for James, there were always signs that she was destined for greatness on two-wheels.

The former member of Abergavenny Road Club was spotted and signed up for the British Cycling Junior Academy at the age of 15.

A bout of glandular fever entailed she was forced to sit out 2008’s UEC European Junior Track Championship, but the following season she was already on the comeback trail and blazed her way to European junior golds in the sprint and 500-metre time trial in Minsk, Belarus, and world junior titles in the keirin and sprint in Moscow.

More success, medals, and world records followed, most notably her 2010 Commonwealth Games medals for Wales and sprint world title in the UEC European Under-23 Track Championships in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

And at the turn of 2011 she picked up her first UCI Track Cycling World Cup medal in Beijing with a keirin bronze.

London 2012 beckoned, but unfortunately the combined might and fight of Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish denied James her Olympic debut.

Looking back on the bitter sting of not being selected to compete on the ultimate stage, James explained, “It was like the end of the world, the lowest moment in my career, but you have to put the disappointment behind you and get on with it.”

And put it behind her she did in grand style, when she set the cycling world on fire with her four-medal haul at the 2013 UCI Track Cycling World Championship in Minsk.

To win one medal at a World Championships is a remarkable achievement, to win two is a double whammy, to win three is a rare distinction, but to win four is to carve your name into the history books like a true trailblazer.

Which is exactly what James did, most notably when she beat German poorhouse Kristina Vogel 2-1 in the sprint final.

Yet after every peak comes the fall, and by the time the Glasgow Commonwealth Games arrived, James was unable to compete due to knee injuries.

Surgery on her knee, followed by a keyhole operation on a chronic shoulder problem and a cancer scare all conspired to put James off track and on the sidelines for much of 2014 and 2015, but as all the best athletes prove time and time again, it’s not about how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep going.

Slowly but surely, the green shoots of recovery began to show and grow.

A couple of solid performances in 2015 boded well, but in early 2016 Becky really made her presence felt, and she put down a superb marker for Rio when she won bronze at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London.

Not to be outdone or outshone by past glories, James maintained her remarkable form on the road to Rio and as we all know, picked up not one, but two silver medals for her troubles in an Olympic campaign that was a testament to true grit and the will to overcome.

What next for Becky James? Well, we can only sit and wonder, but one thing’s for sure, the Abergavenny speedster has proved beyond doubt that not all that glitters is gold, sometimes it’s silver too.