Olympic pedalling couple Laura and Jason are history makers
CYCLING superstars Laura and Jason Kenny become the first husband and wife to receive a damehood and knighthood in the same Honours list. Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Jason, 33, is britain’s most successful Olympian, winning gold in the keirin at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Laura, 29, has six Olympic medals, winning the madison and gaining a team pursuit silver at last summer’s Games. She is the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history, and the most successful female british athlete. The pair lead the way in accolades for Team Gb, with 78 Olympians and Paralympians honoured. Gold medal-winning middleweight boxer Lauren Price, 27, gets an MbE. The Welshwoman, who was raised by her grandparents Derek and Linda, spoke movingly about what it would mean to her grandad, who died last year. She said: “He would have been the proudest grandfather ever, the proudest man in the Valleys. It was a shame he wasn’t here when I came home from Tokyo, he hadn’t long passed. He always supported me.
“I’ve lived with them from three days old so it was such a massive part of my career.”
She described the gong as “an absolute honour and a privilege,” adding: “It’s something I’ve always been in awe of.”
Wheelchair Paralympian Hannah Cockroft, 29, gets an ObE, a decade after she became an MbE following the 2012 London Games.
She retained her women’s 100 metres T34 Paralympic title in Tokyo – setting a new world record. It was her sixth Paralympic gold. She said: “To still be here 10 years down the line, still winning gold in the same event, still topping the podium... I don’t really think many athletes can say that.
“To get this honour, to recognise the fact that 10 years later I am still on the top of that podium, is a huge, huge privilege.”
Double Olympic gold medal swimmer Adam Peaty, 27, gets an ObE, as does diver Tom Daley, also 27, who won gold in Japan.
US Open champion Emma Raducanu, 19, gets an MbE after becoming the first british woman to win a grand slam tennis singles title since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. The teenager, from bromley in south-east London, won the event in New York as a 499-1 outsider. Ex-Sunderland footballer Gary bennett – one of the first three patrons of the charity Show Racism the Red Card – receives an MbE. Gary, 60, said the battle is far from over, adding: “It’s something we continue to fight. “People ask, ‘What’s it like to suffer from racism?’ I try to tell them, especially if you’re in my colour skin, it’s something you feel on a daily basis.” He also highlighted abuse of England stars Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and bukayo Saka after they missed vital penalties in the gripping spot-kick shootout against Italy last summer. He said: “We speak of those penalties and, for some reason, their colour comes into it.”