Kenny hits reset button
Olympic sprint gold medallist prepares to return to racing next year
British track star Jason Kenny has said his year off has helped him “reset” as he returns to training in preparation for his first race since the Olympics.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio he won three gold medals but he hasn’t raced since and this August Kenny’s wife Laura — herself a two-time gold medallist in Rio — gave birth to their first child, Albert, sparking rumours that he might retire.
But even before the arrival of his son he had eschewed structured training.
“I never stopped riding,” he said at the Cycle Show in Birmingham on Friday. “It’s just that when I stopped training and competing I started going on mountain bike rides and things like that. A couple of months ago I found I was pretty much training anyway and thought, ‘I’ll give it a nudge and see how I go.’”
Having competed on the track at senior level since he turned 18 in 2006, Kenny welcomed the time away, which he said gave him time to do “normal” things.
“I’ve basically had a year off from structured training and racing,” he said. “I feel much better for it to be honest; I should’ve done it a long time ago, or maybe had more breaks throughout my career.
“Mentally I was sick of it; sick of constantly banging your head against a brick wall, trying to scrape out that extra half a tenth [of a second]. I feel like I’ve almost had a reset switch now, by going out and just being a normal person.”
Kenny’s return to racing will come at the Manchester meet of the Revolution Series, next January. His son’s August birth was a happy disruption to the preparation. “I’ve had kind of four weeks of paternity leave I suppose,” he said. “It’s hard getting back to training, and [Albert’s birth] changes priorities, but it hasn’t changed the plan.
“Olympic qualification starts this time next year and I want to be front and centre with that. I know all the lads coming through. Ryan [Owens], Jack [Carlin] and Joseph [Truman] were basically the team that rode the last World Championships.
“They’re really promising and it’s motivating for me. Obviously it’s harder to get in the team, but ultimately you’re getting in a team that’s potentially a winning one.”
A record seventh Olympic gold isn’t high in Kenny’s mind right now, with the Mancunian happy to take it race-by-race, season-by-season.
“At the minute I’m really happy so I’ve got no intention of drawing a line anywhere,” he said. “Maybe I’ll get to Tokyo and call it a day, maybe I’ll carry on for 10 years. At this point I’m working one year at a time towards that ultimate goal.”