Born with a collapsed lung, Laura only took up cycling aged five for her health – and became an Olympic legend
SHE will be remembered as one half of the ultimate golden couple. The dame and the knight. The most successful female and male athletes in British Olympic history.
When her surname was still Trott, Laura Kenny once spoke about wanting her household to collect 12 Olympic gold medals so they could make a clock for their Cheshire home. How perfect, then, that the 31-year- old should join husband Jason in retirement with five golds to go with his seven.
There will never be another timepiece like it. There will never be another couple like them. For nine years, from London 2012 to the delayed Tokyo Games of 2021, track cycling was one long series of Keeping up with the Kennys. Yet that show is now officially over, four months before Paris 2024.
It was typical of Kenny that she should attempt to keep it going and qualify for a fourth Games. She only gave birth to her second son, Monty, last July. But she has spent her life overcoming the odds.
Born six weeks premature with a collapsed lung, Kenny spent more than a month in intensive care. As a child, she suffered from asthma and unexplained blackouts, including one that made her ask her dad: ‘ What happened? Did I just die?’
Kenny only started cycling, aged five, because doctors advised her parents it would help increase her lung capacity. Three years later, she joined Welwyn Wheelers, but as a teenager she hated riding in public. ‘I didn’t want to pedal down the high street with my helmet on,’ she recalled in her book. ‘There was a little courtyard of shops where all the so-called cool kids would hang out and they would shout at you as you went past.’
Well, this 5ft 4in pocket rocket would soon become cooler than any kid by winning gold medals in the team pursuit and omnium at London 2012 aged 20 — and the whole country was shouting for her.
With her youthful exuberance and infectious personality, Team GB had a new star. And it soon emerged they had a new star couple, as Laura and Jason were famously photographed kissing during a night at the beach volleyball, sitting just behind David Beckham at Horse Guards Parade, having been invited there by Prince Harry.
‘London 2012 is my absolute highlight,’ said Kenny yesterday when reflecting on her illustrious career. ‘I just never thought I would go to a home Games, let alone go on to win two gold medals at a home Games.
‘That is when Jason and I announced that we were together, too. Those weeks really did change my life. They were just insane.’ So too was the summer of 2016, when she defended her two titles in Rio de Janeiro then married Jason, who won three golds at those Games, in secret the following month.
Kenny became pregnant later that year, announcing the news to her sister Emma by asking: ‘Do you think if I have a baby I’d be destroying my career?’ There was never any chance of that. After giving birth to Albie in August 2017, Kenny won a world silver medal just six months later.
Then at the Tokyo Games she became the first British mother in the modern era to win an Olympic gold — and the first British woman to win gold at three straight Games — with her stunning victory alongside Katie Archibald in the madison.
‘That moment for me showed just how determined I am as a person,’ said Kenny. ‘Coming back after having a baby, going on to win that gold medal, I cannot tell you how much work went into that.’
In the months after her Tokyo triumph, Kenny suffered a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, causing her to contemplate retirement as she struggled with her mental health. Yet she amazingly returned for what has proved to be her last hurrah — winning gold in the scratch race at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, at the velodrome where it all started for her in London.
Realistically, earning a place at Paris 2024 was always a long shot, coming so soon after having her second child. British Cycling performance director Stephen Park stated earlier this month she only had a ‘ slim chance’ of making it.
That was probably being kind, for Kenny never returned to training on the track, only working on her own at home.
As she was not ready to ride in next month’s Track Nations Cup event in Canada, selection for which had to be finalised this week, her last chance of earning the required qualifying points was gone. It was previously thought Kenny would instead turn her attention to the World Championships in October, but she is putting her family first.
‘I made the decision about 10 days ago,’ she said. ‘It’s been in my head a little while, the sacrifices of leaving the children at home is really quite big.
‘The more that people were asking me what races was I doing, what training camps was I going on, I just kept getting this horrible feeling in my tummy that was like, “You don’t want to go there”.
‘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. Once I said to Jase, “I don’t think I want to ride a bike any more”, I started to feel relief.’
KENNY still hopes to be in Paris in ‘ some capacity’, which will likely mean working as a BBC Sport pundit. Further down the line, she wants to set up her own cycling academy, furthering a legacy that has already touched some of the riders going for gold this summer.
‘I grew up wanting to be Laura Kenny,’ Josie Knight, part of Britain’s world champion pursuit team, told Mail Sport. ‘ Watching her dominate the London Olympics was what made me want to be a cyclist.
‘She’s had the biggest impact on my career. She paved the way for us female track riders and everything she did was inspiring. The legacy she will leave behind at British Cycling is bigger than she’ll ever know.’
British Cycling boss Park described Kenny as ‘not just one of the sport’s greatest riders, but one of the greatest sporting talents our country has ever produced’. He added: ‘ Just as impressive is the impact Laura has had on her fellow riders on the team and the next generation of Olympic hopefuls.’
Perhaps, then, the National Cycling Centre in Manchester needs a new name. The Kenny Cycling Centre, anyone?