“It started off with me and my mum,” says Amber Joseph, the only Barbadian rider in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome at the Track World Championships. “She was my bank. She was my chauffeur, mechanic, manager, and she didn’t even know the difference between the front wheel and back wheel.”
Joseph stands out as she warms up inside the track centre. The 22-year-old is decked in bright yellow kit, sitting up high in the saddle while she spins her legs. To her right, her mother sits on a plastic chair.
In less than two years, this same velodrome will host the track cycling events at the Paris Olympics. If Joseph qualifies for the games, she’ll be the first female cyclist to represent Barbados at the Olympics, and the first Barbadian cyclist to compete in two decades.
“Barry Forde, right?” she says when I remind her of that statistic. “He’s actually the guy that got me cycling in Barbados.”
“My mum knew Barry’s wife and just got speaking to them. Barry had me in the gym when I was like 12, lifting 120kg and doing squats. It was crazy.
“Then he put me on a bike and it felt amazing. It was like I was supposed to be on a bike.”
(Image credit: SWPix)
At the age of 13, Joseph and her mum upped sticks in Barbados and moved to Reading, England, where she made quick progress through British Cycling’s track programme, joining the Olympic development squad.
In 2016, after three years with Great Britain, she was asked to represent her birthplace of Barbados at the Pan American Championships. An opportunity, Joseph says, she simply couldn’t turn down.
“I decided to change back my UCI licence to Barbados,” the L39ion of Los Angeles rider explains, “and got silver in the omnium.”
I start to ask if she regrets leaving British Cycling, but before I can finish the question, Joseph deals an abrupt “no”.
“Barbados has always been my home. It always has. If I had to choose between England and Barbados… Barbados any day. Not just because it’s paradise.
“I find with British Cycling, from the outside and from things that I’ve heard, it’s a little bit more difficult than just riding your bike,” she adds. “Now I can literally pick any event that I want to do.”
When it comes to money, though, it’s far from smooth sailing. Four years ago, Joseph began receiving funding from the Barbados Olympic Association, taking some of the financial burden off her and her family. “But it’s nowhere compared to what surrounds…