Lizzie Armitstead was teased on to the school playing field at the beginning of her journey to becoming the first Great Britain medallist of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The 23-year-old won silver behind prolific winner Marianne Vos of Holland in the 140-kilometre road race on day two, which finished on The Mall, nine years after being discovered by British Cycling's Jonny Clay on a visit to Prince Henry School in Otley.
Clay, a team pursuit bronze medallist in Sydney in 2000, was running the Yorkshire and North East talent team programme and, alongside Phil West, who still mentors Armitstead now, oversaw her first revolutions en route to the Olympic podium.
Clay, now British Cycling's cycle sport and membership director, told Press Association Sport: "She only came out because she had been teased by one of the lads in her year. Had she not been teased, that this guy was going to beat her, she wouldn't have come out."
A circle of cones was laid out, with pupils riding six laps as an endurance test and sprinting across the width as a sprint assessment and Armitstead, by her own admission not a natural athlete, beat her adversary.
From those first exertions around the school field, there were power assessments on a stationary bike and psychological assessments before she was inducted on to the regional talent team at the start of her progression to world, Commonwealth and now Olympic medals. Armitstead's capability was not immediately obvious, but she stuck to her task.
Clay added: "She's been very good for some years now, but what she did yesterday was the best thing she has achieved. It was a superb ride and she was beaten by the best cyclist in the world. It was a proud moment for myself, Phil West and Claire Rushworth of the talent team."
British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford told BBC Radio 5 Live: "She's been a model athlete since then, so her medal is richly deserved.
"I'm sure she'll still be pinching herself. What an honour and what a great person to have the privilege of being the first person (to win a home medal at London 2012).
"She's so dedicated, she's such a bubbly, fantastic character, I can't think of anybody better to achieve that."