Britain’s five-time Olympic champion Kenny retires

LONDON: Five-time Olympic champion Laura Kenny said on Monday she is retiring from professional cycling.

Britain’s most successful female Olympian won titles at the London, Rio and Tokyo Games and also picked up seven World Championship crowns. The 31-year-old gave birth to her second child in July 2023 after suffering a miscarriage in 2021 and having to undergo surgery following an ectopic pregnancy.

She gave birth to her first child in 2017. “After lots of thought and consideration I have decided I am going to retire from professional cycling,” Kenny told BBC Breakfast. “I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up.

“The sacrifices of leaving the children and your family at home is really quite big and it really is a big decision to make. More and more, I was struggling to do that. “People asking me what races was I doing, what training camps was I going on - I didn’t want to go ultimately and that’s what it came down to.”

Kenny said in November she was aiming to make the team for the Paris Games. She said she still hoped to be involved “in some capacity” at the Games this summer. Kenny is married to now-retired track cyclist Jason Kenny, Britain’s most-decorated Olympian with seven golds.