Dame Laura Kenny admitted a lack of hunger to pursue an unprecedented sixth Olympic gold medal contributed to her decision to announce her retirement from cycling at the age of 31.
Kenny, Britain’s most decorated female Olympian, faced an improbable task to reach a fourth Games in Paris this summer having not returned to training after giving birth to her second child.
Realistically, she required an extraordinary performance at next month’s Track Nations Cup in Canada to stand any chance of making the squad, and for Kenny it ultimately came down to a question of priorities.
“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 anymore, it just wasn’t,” Kenny told BBC Breakfast.
“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 and her husband, Sir Jason Kenny – Britain’s most decorated Olympian – last year welcomed a second son to their family and she said spending time at home was proving increasingly alluring to her.
She added: “I always knew deep down I would know when was the right time. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.
“It’s been in my head a little while, the sacrifices of leaving the children and your family at home is 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 anymore’, I started to feel relief.”
Kenny won team pursuit and omnium gold at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and madison gold at the 2020 Olympics, where she also won a silver medal in the team pursuit.
She is a seven-time world champion and 14-time European champion, won two Commonwealth Games titles and was British National Road Race champion in 2014.
Kenny said the “absolute highlight” of her career was the 2012 Games in London, during which 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,” she said.
“When I look back, I’m like ‘wow, those two weeks did really change my life’.”
Tributes poured in following Kenny’s announcement, with former Olympic heptathlon champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill writing on Instagram: “Laura what an incredible career you have had!
“You are such a legend, always will be and you will continue inspiring! Enjoy this next chapter.”
Sprint great Mark Cavendish described Kenny as an “absolute legend”, while British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson wrote: “Dame Laura Kenny has been our greatest ever female Olympian and a huge part of cycling and Team GB’s success at London, Rio and Tokyo.
“However, as well as being an outstanding athlete, she has also been a wonderful personality. We will all miss her enormously and wish her, and her family, all the very best for the future.”
Kenny, made a Dame in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, hopes to be at this summer’s Paris Olympics “in some capacity” and wants to stay involved with the GB cycling team.
“There’s nothing set in stone but there are things I’m so interested in doing,” she added.
“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.”
Great Britain team performance director Stephen Park paid tribute to Kenny, saying: “Laura hangs up her wheels as not just one of the sport’s greatest riders, but as one of the greatest sporting talents our country has ever produced.”
Park added: “Just as impressive, however, is the impact which Laura has had on her fellow riders on the GB cycling team and the next generation of Olympic hopefuls.
“She has been a beacon of inspiration for so many, young and old, and I’m sure that the entire British cycling community will join me in wishing her the very best in the next chapter of her life.”
On this day 2013: Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announces retirement
Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling 11 years ago, admitting: “I know it is the right decision.”
The 37-year-old Scot had been contemplating continuing until the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but revealed he was quitting the sport at a press conference in Edinburgh on April 18, 2013.
Hoy was Britain’s most decorated Olympian after his haul of two gold medals at London 2012 saw him surpass rower Sir Steve Redgrave’s record of five, although he was overtaken by former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny in 2021.
In explaining his decision, Hoy said: “I think in sport at the highest level you’re dealing in such small margins and you can tell when you’re good but not good enough.
“It was very emotional coming in there (to the press conference) and I was trying not to watch the video montage with the sad music.
“I don’t want it to be a sad moment.
“I want to celebrate it and be happy because I know it is the right decision.
“It’s a decision that I didn’t take lightly and I thought about it very hard.”
As well as six Olympic titles, Hoy’s 13-year career featured 11 world titles and two Commonwealth crowns.
Hoy’s final race was the Olympic Keirin final on August 7, 2012 – on the final day of the London 2012 track programme.
Following retirement, Hoy pursued his passion for motorsport, including competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while he has also written children’s books.
In February 2024, the 48-year-old announced he was undergoing treatment for cancer.
Paul extends rich form with double gold; Browne, Campbell also among T&T's medals at PanAm Track Cycling Champs
Trinidad and Tobago’s ace cyclist Nicholas Paul continued his rich early season form as he wrapped up another double gold medal-winning outing at the just-concluded Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Los Angeles, California.
Paul’s medals were won in his customary events, the men's Keirin and Sprint, and followed his fairly successful outing at the UCI Championships in Hong Kong where he recovered from a two-cycle collision in the Keirin to win the Sprint.
The 23-year-old again expressed gratitude for the continued support as he represents the twin island republic with much gusto.
“It is always an honour to represent my country and the Pan American region. Thank you to everyone for all the love and continued support. The Journey continues and the next stop will be the Nations Cup in Milton, Canada. So, I just want to continue putting in the hard work and let it show in my performances,” Paul said.
In the Keirin, Paul topped Colombia’s Kevin Quintero, while another Trinidad and Tobago cyclist Kwesi Browne copped bronze.
However, it took a photo-finish to separate Paul and another Colombian Cristian Ortega for the Sprint crown. Paul bettered his South American rival in the first ride before edging ahead in the second ride on the line by millimeters to retain his title.
Meanwhile, Akil Campbell was also among the medals, as he won a bronze medal in the men's scratch race.
In other results at the meet, Alexi Ramirez finished eighth in the women's elimination race and in the women's scratch race, while Makaira Wallace and Phoebe Sandy placed 13th and 17th in the women's sprint qualification, respectively.
On this day in 2018: Scotland’s Katie Archibald wins Commonwealth Games gold
Scotland’s Katie Archibald added Commonwealth champion to her long list of accolades on this day in 2018.
Archibald, an Olympic, world and European champion in various disciplines, took gold in the women’s individual pursuit in Brisbane, having broken the Games record in a blistering qualifying session.
Her only previous Commonwealth medal was the bronze she won on home soil in the points race in Glasgow four years earlier.
Archibald, then aged 24, said before racing began gold was the only colour she wanted and swiftly delivered, covering the 3,000m distance in three minutes 26.088 seconds to beat Australian Rebecca Wiasak.
She had set the record at 3:24.119 in a qualifying session which saw three riders go under the previous record set by England’s Joanna Rowsell Shand in Glasgow.
“It means a lot, especially in the individual pursuit because it’s not an Olympic event,” said Archibald. “2014 always stands out as a big year for Joanna Rowsell to kind of echo, because she had the title and the Games record.
“You look at the success she carried from that point in her career. I’d be very proud.”
Fired up by his sister’s performance, Archibald’s brother John then added another medal to Scotland’s tally with silver in the men’s 4,000m individual pursuit as England’s Charlie Tanfield clinched gold.
“I watched her heat run and the pressure was on her,” said John Archibald.
“The Commonwealth Games record went and they all went better than her personal best so she had her back against the wall but she pulled out and delivered on the day and that got me going.”
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