Exclusive Kenny: I dream of winning three gold medals in Tokyo
Four-time champion aims for three titles Goal is to show what mothers can achieve
For anyone who has taken even a passing interest in Laura Kenny’s career, it will come as no surprise to learn that motherhood has failed to slow her down one bit. British cycling’s very own pocket rocket, Kenny’s appetite for success has always been in inverse proportion to her diminutive frame. She was a serial winner before giving birth to her son, Albie, last year. Indeed, Kenny is famously Britain’s most successful female Olympian, with four gold medals spread across two Games. Now, though, having made a successful return to competition, the 26-year-old is planning something even more audacious.
“If you were to ask me ‘What is your dream?’ I would say to do all three,” Kenny replies without hesitation when asked what events she is targeting at Tokyo 2020. It is quite a statement. Kenny previously had the opportunity to win just two medals per Games, with one of Britain’s pursuit team allowed to double up in the omnium. Kenny was the chosen one at London 2012 and again in Rio. And she did not let the selectors down on either occasion.
Now, with the Madison – one of track cycling’s most spectacular disciplines, in which two riders hand-sling each other around the circuit for lap after lap – returning to the Olympic programme in Tokyo, there is the possibility that endurance riders might enter three events. Kenny, whose achievements have seen her nominated for Action Woman Awards, in association with The Telegraph, is keen to try. “I mean, it’s not as simple as that, obviously,” she adds, quickly. “I have to get selected first.”
That will not be easy, given the quality in British women’s endurance. Katie Archibald, Kenny’s fellow Olympic gold medallist in the team pursuit, was world omnium champion in 2017 and world Madison champion this year. She will also want to take on as many events as possible. Emily Nelson was Archibald’s Madison partner at the worlds in Apeldoorn in March. Elinor Barker, another of GB’S gold medal-winning pursuiters from Rio, won world points-race gold last year and would have partnered Archibald in the Madison this year but for a crash in the omnium the day before. The competition, Kenny admits, is “fiercer than ever”.
“It’s difficult because they’re your team-mates,” she says. “But they want the same thing. Katie and Elinor and all the girls who do team pursuit. They all want to do multiple events. So, yeah, it’s just about being the best I can be and then we’ll see what happens. If I win, I win. If I don’t, at least I gave it my best shot.”
It would take a brave person to bet against Kenny. The manner in which she returned to elite competition this year, winning world silver as part of the pursuit team in Apeldoorn less than six months after giving birth, showed the strength of her desire to return, even if she now says she was “nowhere near ready” for those championships.
And you sense that she is motivated to show what mothers in sport can do. “I was lucky in the fact that Jess Ennis-hill did it before me, and I was able to pick her brains about how it worked,” she says. “But yeah, I guess it’s important to have role models. We’ve had Dame Sarah Storey. And Lizzie [Deignan] is also going through it now.”
Kenny says she would consider trying for another baby after Tokyo and doing the same again for Paris 2024. “I mean, I’ll have to see how successful I am this time around!” she adds quickly. “It’s not as easy as that.” If anyone can, Kenny probably can. Not only was she part of the team who won world pursuit gold at the recent Track World Cup event in Canada, she won her first omnium event since becoming a mother.
That win was significant primarily because the World Cup series – of which Britain has a round in London next month – carries Olympic qualification points. Also because it was her first go at the new-look omnium, which has been reduced from six events to four since she last rode it. Kenny is not a fan of the new “Tempo” race, describing it as “far too complicated”.
But she was happy with her form in Canada, and with finding out more about the next generation. “There are a lot of fresh faces,” she admits. “Like the girl from Mexico [Lizbeth Salazar]. I’d never raced her before. To be honest, I’d never even heard of her before! It made me feel pretty old.” She laughs. “I guess I have been around for a while now. But I’m only 26! I’m not that old, am I?”