Dame Laura Kenny, Britain’s leading female Olympian, quit cycling at 31 to prioritize expanding her family
Olympic star Dame Laura Kenny, 31, has announced her retirement from cycling.
Throughout her remarkable career, the star collected seven World Championship crowns in addition to five Olympic gold medals.
She had planned to compete in her fourth game in Paris this summer, but she has since revealed that she will not be doing so due to the birth of her second kid in July of last year.
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Before marrying former cyclist and the only other more distinguished Olympian in Britain, Sir Jason Kenny, in 2016, Laura had the last name Trott. She told BBC Breakfast: “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.”
Laura continued: “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.
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“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.”
After welcoming a kid named Albie into the world in 2017, the pair decided to go back to cycling because she wanted to show that cyclists could balance the pressures of competition with motherhood.
Prior to the birth of their second child, a boy named Monty, in 2023, Laura experienced a miscarriage in 2021 and an ectopic pregnancy a few months later.
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She became the most successful British female Olympian ever after winning in London, Rio, and Tokyo.
Laura was a member of the London 2012 team pursuit quartet that won gold, and she later won another in the omnium.
In Rio, she accomplished the same feat by winning two additional gold medals in the same competitions.
She then won a decisive gold in the Madison with her good friend Katie Archibald in Tokyo, capping off a silver in the team pursuit.
She made the shocking announcement in November that she intended to make a surprise comeback to try and win in Paris.
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There was only a “slim chance” of that happening, according to Stephen Park, performance director for British Cycling.
Laura added: “I was getting these hesitant feelings.
“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.
“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’.”
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In addition to her Olympic achievements, the celebrity has won three medals, including two gold, at the Commonwealth Games and has been a 14-time European champion.
After retiring from the track, she now declares that she is “open to doing anything and everything.”
Laura added: “There’s nothing set in stone but there are things I’m so interested in doing.
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“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.”
