All I do is ride a bike says modest Laura, mum-to-be and CBE
FOUR-TIME Olympic champion Laura Kenny said it was a ‘huge honour’ to be made a CBE yesterday – adding ‘all I do is ride a bike’.
The 25-year-old cyclist, who is expecting her first child, showed off her baby bump in an elegant white dress as she attended Buckingham Palace for the ceremony alongside her husband Jason, who also received a CBE.
Mrs Kenny said ‘nothing compares’ to being given the award, despite announcing her pregnancy, getting married and winning two Olympic gold medals in the last 12 months.
She added: ‘I almost feel like I don’t deserve it. It’s such a huge honour, but I feel like all I do is ride a bike.’
The athlete said that she was still ‘doing bits and bobs – I’m doing about two hours of exercise a day’ but admitted that she was enjoying some time off with her track cyclist husband.
She said: ‘It’s actually nice – me and Jason are spending a lot more time together. We’re doing things we never really did, like going down to my parents’ house, for example.’
Mrs Kenny, who was named in Great Britain’s cycling squad alongside her six-time Olympic champion husband on Monday, said she had received advice from fellow athletes Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Dame Sarah Storey.
She said it had ‘been good to see how they split their time’ between training and parenting, and that she was ‘excited about the adventure’ of becoming a mother.
Despite being a young parent Mrs Kenny said it was ‘the right time’ to have a baby, and that the couple had ‘wanted to try’ straight after the Rio Olympics. She added that she ‘always wanted to be a young mum’ and that she loved ‘cycling’ but ‘never wanted it to define me’.
Mr Kenny, 29, who was also honoured for his services to cycling, described the day as ‘mega’, and said he was still considering whether to aim for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Other athletes honoured include showjumping champion Nick Skelton, 59, who was made a CBE weeks after announcing his retirement.