Britain’s most accomplished female Olympian, Dame Laura Kenny, has declared her retirement from cycling.
In a distinguished track career, the 31-year-old secured five Olympic gold medals and seven World Championship titles.
After welcoming her second child in July, she had been aiming for a fourth Olympics in Paris this year.
“I always knew deep down I would know when the right time was,” said Kenny in an exclusive interview with BBC Breakfast.
“I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.”
Kenny, who is married to former cyclist Sir Jason Kenny – the most decorated British Olympian, added: “It’s been in my head a little while, the sacrifices of leaving the children and your family at home are really quite big and it really is a big decision to make.
“More and more, I was struggling to do that. More people asking me what races was I doing, what training camps was I going on – I didn’t want to go ultimately and that’s what it came down to.
“I knew the minute I was getting those feelings. Once I said to Jase, ‘I don’t think I want to ride a bike any more’, I started to feel relief.”
Following the birth of her first son, Albie, in 2017, Kenny swiftly resumed cycling, aiming to demonstrate that athletes could effectively balance the demands of sports and motherhood.
However, after experiencing a miscarriage in late 2021 and an ectopic pregnancy a few months later, the Kennys celebrated the arrival of their second son, Monty, in 2023.
In March, British Cycling performance director Stephen Park indicated that Kenny’s chances of competing in Paris were slim.
“I was getting these hesitant feelings,” said Kenny.
“Going on to win another gold medal, as much as I would love to do that, it wasn’t giving me the energy I wanted any more, it just wasn’t.
“I wasn’t thinking, ‘I really want to go on and win one’. I was thinking, ‘I really want to stay at home with the children’.”
Kenny’s glittering career
Having already clinched three world championships by then, Kenny captured widespread attention by securing gold in the women’s omnium and team pursuit at the London 2012 Olympics.
Reflecting on her career, Kenny described the 2012 Games as the “absolute highlight,” emphasizing its life-altering impact. It was during these two weeks that her relationship with Jason also became public.
“I never thought I would go to a home Games, let alone go on to win two gold medals.
“When I look back, I’m like ‘wow, those two weeks did really change my life’.”
She repeated the omnium and team pursuit double four years later at the Rio Games, becoming the first British woman to win four Olympic titles.
At the Tokyo Olympics – delayed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic – Kenny won team pursuit silver, before she and Katie Archibald became the first Olympic champions in the women’s madison, a new event at that year’s Games.
Kenny’s achievements marked her as the first British woman to secure a gold medal in three consecutive Olympics and the most successful female cyclist in the history of the Games.
Although she had aimed for a fourth Olympics in 2024, Kenny had not yet resumed team training before her retirement announcement. The Track Nations Cup scheduled for April in Canada would have been her final chance to accumulate the necessary points for qualification.
Her last world champion rainbow jersey was obtained in 2016, at the London track where she rose to fame, triumphing in the omnium and scratch race.
Additionally, Kenny boasts a remarkable record of 14 European championship titles and clinched three medals, including two golds, at the Commonwealth Games.
Her second gold medal, earned in the scratch race in Birmingham in 2022, came amid a “serious confidence crisis,” a day after she had initially anticipated it to be her final race.
What’s next?
Kenny, made a Dame in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, said she was “open to doing anything and everything” in the next chapter of her life.
As for this summer’s Olympics, Kenny said she hopes to be at the Games “in some capacity”.
Speaking earlier in March, before the news of Kenny’s retirement, Park said he believed she would have “an ongoing involvement” with the GB cycling team “for years to come”.
“There’s nothing set in stone but there are things I’m so interested in doing,” said Kenny.
“Something to help the younger generation, whether that could be some kind of academy.
“I could never be a coach because that’s just too much pressure for me, but maybe something in the background that would help the youngsters have the opportunities I had.”