Dame Laura Kenny, Britain’s most successful female Olympian, has announced her retirement from professional cycling.
The 31-year-old won five Olympic golds and seven World Championship titles during a standout career on the track, which spanned from 2008 to 2024.
She gave birth to her second child in July last year and had previously been targeting a fourth Olympics in Paris this summer.
“I always knew deep down I would know when the right time was,” Kenny said in an interview with BBC Breakfast.
I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.”
Kenny, who’s husband is former cyclist Sir Jason Kenny – the most decorated British Olympian of all time, 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.”
Kenny gave birth to her first son, Albie, in 2017 after which she returned to cycling, eager to prove athletes could juggle the rigorous demands of sport alongside motherhood.
After a miscarriage in late 2021 and an ectopic pregnancy just five months afterwards, Laura and Jason welcomed their second son, Monty, in the summer of 2023.
Earlier on this month, British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said Kenny had only a “slim chance” of competing in the Paris Olympics this summer.
“I was getting these hesitant feelings,” Kenny said.
“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 went onto say that the logistics of being on the road with Albie during her bid to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo – delayed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic – were very stressful.
“Taking Albie around the world, travelling around the world with him and qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics was absolute carnage,” she added.
“I think Jason and I had this way of painting this really beautiful, easy picture and the picture that everyone wants: you can have a baby, you can come back and you can go on to win a gold medal – and it looks easy, and I’m telling you, it was far from easy, it was absolute carnage.
“And there were so many sacrifices along the way; there were so many flights I had to book here, there and everywhere. It was expensive.
“It worked, yes. But it didn’t come without some serious heartbreak and sacrifices.”
Kenny’s career highlights
- At the 2012 Olympics that were held in London, Kenny won gold in both the women’s omnium and team pursuit at the Lee Valley VeloPark.
- Kenny said that was the “absolute highlight” of her career, with the 2012 Games a life-changing two weeks during which her relationship with Jason became public knowledge
On London 2012, Kenny said:
“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 at the Rio Games in 2016, becoming the first British woman to win four Olympic titles.
Her influence on British cycling is “nothing short of extraordinary”, according to chief executive officer of the British Olympic Association, Andy Anson.
“Her talent, dedication, resilience and brilliant personality will have inspired many and I have no doubt will continue to do so over years to come”, Anson added.
“She is a true legend of British Olympic sport.”
Alex Howard Latham Sports Journalism 