Laura Kenny has announced her retirement from cycling with immediate effect, bringing the curtain down on a career that saw her win five Olympic gold medals and seven world titles.
The Briton had been preparing to participate in her fourth Olympic Games this summer, though British Cycling performance director Stephen Park indicated earlier this month that she had only a “slim chance” of lining up in Paris. On Monday, Kenny confirmed her retirement from cycling.
“I always knew deep down I would know when the right time was. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up,” Kenny told the BBC.
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Kenny was one of the stars of the London 2012 Olympics, winning gold in both the omnium and team pursuit. She repeated the feat in Rio four years later and then added gold in the Madison and a silver in the team pursuit in Tokyo in 2021.
“I never thought I would go to a home Games, let alone go on to win two gold medals,” Kenny said of the London Olympics. "When I look back, I'm like 'wow, those two weeks did really change my life.’”
Although Kenny competed on the road, including with the Wiggle-Honda squad in 2013 and 2014, track cycling always remained her priority, and she collected rainbow jerseys in the omnium, scratch and team pursuit, as well as fourteen European titles in the velodrome.
Her husband Jason Kenny, himself a seven-time Olympic champion, retired from cycling at the start of 2022. The couple have two children, born in 2017 and 2023.
“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,” Kenny said on Monday.
"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.”
In a statement released by British Cycling, performance director Stephen Park paid tribute to Kenny’s impact on the sport.
“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 said. “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.”
