Hopes of adding keirin gold to his collection of team sprint silver and sprint bronze ended in painful fashion as Carlin found himself caught up in a three-cycle collision that left the Team GB rider flat on his back for some time, his cycling suit ripped, and in evident pain and discomfort.
Carlin was, thankfully, able to get up and walk off unaided but only after a few concerning moments. He somehow found the energy to still make the the team night out – you can take the boy out of Paisley etc – but the repercussions of that fall, and the damage it did to his pelvis in particular, continue to be felt to this day.
The start of the Olympic four-year cycle allows most athletes to take a bit of a breather from the daily grind and, restricted by his injury, Carlin elected to make the most of it. He went off the radar, putting distance between himself and the glare of the spotlight, barely leaving any tracks. A search online, on social media and through newspaper archives threw up precious few clues as to what Carlin has been up to since Paris last August.
So, can someone with almost 20 major cycling medals to their name simply disappear from public view? Apparently so.
“Being at the start of the Olympic cycle gives you the time to breathe and that was something I learned the hard way after Tokyo,” he says after resurfacing earlier this week to support the recruitment drive for volunteers for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“I didn’t give myself the time [in 2021] and obviously we didn’t have as much time because it was a three-year cycle. I definitely felt the repercussions of that later on in the cycle towards Paris. So, giving myself time now is going to really be beneficial.
“It’s been a really, really good year. A really positive year for myself. I went away and did a bit of travelling with my partner, Christie, which was phenomenal. We went to New Zealand for [fellow cyclist] Mark Stewart’s wedding, then went to Australia and then round south-east Asia. I got to see the sights of the world. The time to do that is after the Games, isn’t it?”
He has also rejoined his childhood golf club since returning home although, like many others, it is a sport that continues to confound and frustrate him. A clutch of Olympic medals apparently can’t eradicate a slice or hook.
“I’ve been playing a lot of golf,” he confirms. “Not as much now because the weather is taking a turn but I was playing a fair bit over the summer. I used to play as a junior at Paisley Golf Club and then moved away to Manchester. So, I’ve rejoined there with a couple of my friends and hacking away at the handicap trying to get it as low as I can. I’m telling you what, I am so mentally weak at it! I don’t know how others do it.”
What he hasn’t been doing as much of late is cycling. Carlin may have decided to leave the bike in the shed for a while in any case but the ongoing problem with his pelvis has left him with no choice. The 28-year-old is yet to resume full training and suggests it may be next year before he’s back completely up to speed.
“Unfortunately, with that crash, even though I ended up going out on the night out afterwards, I actually did my pelvis in at the time,” he adds. “It was a pretty nasty one and it took me a long time to get back on the saddle.
“Actually, it was almost Christmas time or even January before I was able to sit on a saddle properly without any discomfort. So, I’ve not been much in the velodrome but still riding the bike. I’m back in Glasgow now so we’ll just wait and see how the next year goes.”
And what chances of him competing at his third Commonwealth Games? A diplomatically cautious answer. “Just now it’s about focusing on making sure that I can be the best I can be and we’ll see if we’re there or not next year.”
In the meantime, he is supporting the Games as much as he can in other ways, putting his name to press releases, attending this week’s photo shoot and serving as a member of the Athlete Advisory Committee, a group that looks to make sure competitors’ needs are adequately represented.
Carlin comes across as a carefree, down-to-earth figure but that humility masks the fact he is someone who has reached the very elite of their chosen profession through hard work and commitment. He has started to pick up bits and pieces of work as a public speaker and would be keen to do more.
“I’m hoping that starts building a little bit more and more,” he reveals. “It’s something that I’m passionate about. I think if I can be an advocate for the sport and talk about my journey and about how I got into it and hopefully inspire others, whatever the capacity of that is. I think that’s something that I’d be really proud to do.”
His only real other public engagement of late came at the recent Tour de 4 cycling event hosted by Chris Hoy that has so far raised more than £2.6million for charity. Hoy devised the concept to challenge the assumptions often made of those – like him – with Stage 4 cancer and Carlin has been blown away by what his friend and role model continues to achieve.
“Chris has obviously been a massive influence in my career in the sense of inspiring me to do what I do,” he adds. “He’s done what we all wanted to achieve and he’s the pinnacle of what our sport is. But Chris’s legacy is more than that now.
“Doing what he’s doing now [by raising awareness] is going to leave such a strong impact on a lot of men’s lives. You see the uptake of prostate checks now is massive. And he’s raised more than £2.5million too which is incredible. He remains an inspiration to us all.”
