I’D BE RUBBISH AT STRICTLY!
Jason Kenny’s gold made him Britain’s greatest Olympian. But he’d rather mow the lawn than strut on the dance floor
BRITAIN’S greatest Olympian is discussing red carpets. Or, more specifically, his happy knack of avoiding them. ‘We went to Pride of Britain in October and I must look like an agent or people assume I am staff because we just got waved through round the back,’ laughs Jason Kenny, the holder of seven Olympic gold medals.
‘Laura got the hump. I was like, “Come on love, we’re going round the back, they don’t want us”. We slipped by all the cameras and she was like, “I’ve got all done up for no reason”.
‘I didn’t see the down side because I’m not bothered about pictures. I know what I look like. I was wearing the same suit I got married in and I’ve already got a picture of that at home.’
The track cycling legend — husband of five-time Olympic champion Laura — may be smiling but he is not joking. That he is still able to live his life with some semblance of anonymity suits this publicity-shy 33-year-old, even if it has got him in some pickles in the past.
‘When I first went to Sports Personality of the Year, I got ushered in through the service door,’ recalls Kenny. ‘I was wandering around this studio, asking people, “Where the hell am I supposed to be going here?” Someone said, “How have you got here?” Everyone else walked in on the red carpet. No one told me to do that.
‘It was so awkward. I had to stand there on my own until I got ushered into this little seat. I sat there on my own and then went home. The most bizarre experience ever!’
Not even Kenny could have escaped unnoticed at this year’s SPOTY, as he was on stage with Laura to announce Emma Raducanu as the winner. It was, though, one of his only public appearances since Tokyo when he won a gold and silver medal to become Britain’s most successful and most decorated Olympian.
Instead, after returning from Japan, he and Laura took their four-year-old son Albie to Disneyland Paris and then spent 10 days in Mallorca, before enjoying the comforts of their Cheshire home.
‘It was nice to get home and be normal and spend time in the garden,’ he says. ‘I like cutting the grass.’
Unlike fellow Team GB hero Adam Peaty, the swimmer who went on Strictly Come Dancing after the Games, Kenny would much rather watch TV than take part in it. ‘I don’t think I would do it,’ he says. ‘I think Laura is a little bit more open to it, but no, not for me, mainly because I’d be rubbish.
‘It is like a popularity contest, which I’m just never going to win.’
One arena where the self-deprecating Kenny does know how to win, however, is the velodrome, although he even doubted that at times last summer.
Having been victorious in all three of his events at Rio 2016, he could only claim silver in the team sprint at Tokyo 2020 and was then knocked out of the individual sprint in the quarter-finals.
Come the keirin, he had pretty much written off his chances. He needed the repechage to progress past the first round and was then drawn to start the final — on the last day of the Olympics — in the inside lane.
‘When I drew one in the final, I thought, “I’m screwed, this is not good”,’ he admits. ‘Traditionally, no one wants to be in the lead because you are just a target to work on.’
So Kenny hatched a plan never seen at a Games, audaciously breaking away with three laps to go and somehow holding on for his record seventh gold. It was one of the most stunning displays of the Olympics and of the sporting year.
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ says Kenny, sitting with Sportsmail at the Derby Velodrome, where he is launching his new HUUB JK9 line of performance cycle wear.
‘When I was coming round the last lap, I heard the bell and I just wanted to stop because I’d had enough. But I thought, “Just keep going, it could be a medal”.
‘Then I came round the home straight and I was like, “Bloody hell, it’s a gold”. I’ve done lots of races and some have gone well and some have gone badly, but that was really special. Normally I am quite relaxed, but I was proper buzzing about that.’ It takes a lot to get Kenny excited. But even now, four months on, his face lights up as he reflects on the race he admits would be a fitting finale.
‘Winning it in such a cool way, and on the last day and everything, part of me thinks, “That’s quite a nice way to finish actually”,’ he admits. ‘But that’s not going to be the thing that makes me walk away.’
Kenny insists he has made no firm decision about his future. However, as he discusses making a clock with the 12 Olympic golds he and Laura have won, there are some telling signs he is not ready to call time on his career just yet.
‘Everyone is always trying to get you to commit to something or other,’ he laughs. ‘We have to fill a form in with British Cycling and they ask you at the end of October if you are going to commit for a cycle to Paris. I was like “Yeah, I will… for now’. That’s the most commitment you get out of me!’ After Rio 2016, Kenny secretly retired, taking a year out from the sport before realising he missed it too much. This time around, with only three years until Paris 2024, there will be no enforced breaks.
‘I can’t afford to,’ he says. ‘When I took a year out, we were on top of the world and I was the fastest, whereas now I’m not the fastest.
‘It just depends what we do family-wise but I love track cycling, I realised that stepping away after Rio. It was quite hard to leave it completely behind.’
Kenny (right) would be 36 if he was to compete in Paris, but he notes how Sir Chris Hoy — the man whose gold medal record he surpassed in the summer — was the same age when he won his two golds at London 2012. Another possibility, surely, is that Kenny emulates Hoy by becoming a knight of the realm.
‘I think they are probably tightening up a bit. They are not handing them out willy-nilly. I have a pretty good set. I have M, O and CBE. I’m working my way through them!’
Should he complete the set, would becoming Sir Jason change him? ‘I don’t see why it would,’ he replies. ‘You still put your socks on every morning.’ Jason was speaking at the launch of his new HUUB JK9 Cycle Wear. To find out more visit huubdesign.com
‘A knighthood? It wouldn’t change me. You still have to put your socks on in the morning’