Olympic champion Laura Kenny: 'I was told cycling wasn't a proper job'

Laura Kenny was born in April 1992 in Harlow, Essex. She was born a month premature with a collapsed lung and later diagnosed with asthma. Despite this, she joined local cycle club Welwyn Wheelers aged eight. She won her first gold medal aged just 18, as part of the British team pursuit squad at the 2010 European Track Championships. The following year she won gold in the same event in the world championships.

At the Summer Olympics 2012 in London, Kenny won gold medals in the team pursuit and the Omnium. She repeated the feat in the 2016 Olympics, while the 2021 Olympics saw her winning gold in the Madison and silver in the team pursuit. Laura Kenny’s medal tally makes her the most successful British female in the history of the Games. As well as Olympic glory, she has won seven world championship, 14 european championship and two Commonwealth Games title, as part of 24 medals.

Kenny was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to cycling. Her husband Jason was knighted in the same list, also for services to cycling.

Speaking to the Big Issue for her Letter to My Younger Self, Laura Kenny recalls her determination to make it as a cyclist, the feeling of winning Olympic gold and her memories of giving birth.

When I was 16, I’d actually already started cycling competitively. The first time that I went to a race abroad was in 2008 and I raced in the Europeans for Great Britain. I was still at school. My mum and dad wanted me to stick at school but I thought I was starting my career. I remember we got sat down for a careers meeting in year 11. And they said to me, what do you want to do? And I said, I want to be a professional cyclist. And someone said to me, but that’s not a proper job. And I was like, hang on a minute. Because I was already getting paid. It wasn’t much but it was money and lots of other people weren’t even on a path for that yet. 

If you were to get an impression of me at 16 it would solely depend on where you met me. If you met me on the school playground, you would think, she’s really shy. She’s got like, one best friend. I certainly wouldn’t be this confident, chatty person. But if you met me down at the track, you’d be like, wow, she’s a leader. She’s very confident in her ideas. And she’s very open to expressing her opinion. Because when I was in the velodrome I was brimming with confidence. And I loved the people down there, they made me feel like me. I hated school, literally hated it. The worst thing for me would be sitting in English and being asked to read out loud. I was like, absolutely not. I just felt awkward and totally embarrassed. 

My family are very close to this day. I’ve got one sister and I speak to my mum and dad and my sister every single day. I’m very family orientated. And I try to get people together as much as physically possible. I just like it. I like growing up in a family that relies on each other, who can call them up whenever they need. My dog has been really poorly recently and my dad just dropped everything to take him to the vets. I like that they can rely on me and I rely on them and it’s always been that way. And I would do anything to keep [husband and fellow track star] Jason, [and sons] Albie and Monty together for as long as possible.

I think my big breakthrough was in 2010 when I was 18 and I won the Omnium at the Junior World Championships. At the time, the Omnium had just been announced as an Olympic event in 2012. Now, there were seniors, girls a little bit older than me who were racing already in the senior events. But at the World Championships in February, I won. I still didn’t really think I’d make it to London 2012. But it was my sister that said, you could actually make it. You’re only 18 months away from the Olympics. You could actually get there. And I remember thinking, there’s no chance. Then I got to race the Omnium at the 2011 World Championships because Lizzie Armitstead was ill. I never looked back. I was part of the GB programme and I knew I had to try my absolute socks off. I actually won the world championships in April of 2012 and that was me ready to go.

I still remember the exact moment I realised I had won an Olympic gold medal. It just felt like a dream. It was mental, something I’d wanted since I was young. I felt like I was living this out-of-body experience. It just didn’t feel like my life. I just never expected that 2012 would be my first Olympics. I thought I’d miss out on that. But it was one of the best moments of my life. There’s not many things that you would go back and relive. I wouldn’t change 2012 in the slightest – I would relive it 100 times over. [Kenny went on to win two golds in 2012 and another two in 2016.] 

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It’s funny because if you’d gone into the Velodrome and seen the 18-year-old me and him [Jason] and asked, do you reckon those two will ever get married, you’d say absolutely not. We are such different characters. I do not stop talking. He’s not like that at all. He has to do everything exactly on time, But I’m not very organised, it’s always carnage around me. I remember his old coach was amazed. Jason would have a meeting but he couldn’t go till he passed on the baby to me, and I’d be really late and I’d finally get there and he’d rush off. His coach said, how do you do that? He’d have gone mental if that had been anyone else. Because he has to do everything exactly on time. But he just forgives me. We find each other really easy to talk to. 

I think the 16-year-old me would have been quite happy just to win one gold medal. I remember saying to my mum when I was 16, you know what, I just want to go to the Olympics. It wasn’t even winning I cared about. I just wanted to go to the Olympic Games, because to me, that’s the pinnacle of a sporting career. If you’d told me I would win a gold medal, then I’d go on to do it again and again, I wouldn’t have believed you.

I had a bit of trouble getting pregnant again after my first son. It was so difficult – as an athlete you rely on your body to perform. I thought, my body performs as and when I need it to, and it always has done. I can get it fit and I can get it ready. It’s never let me down. But now, it was letting me down. I would say it consumed me as much as bike riding consumed me, 24/7. Just the want and the desire for something that wasn’t happening. I wasn’t in control of anything to do with having another baby. [After suffering an ectopic pregnancy, she did finally give birth to son Monty.]

It was a total shock when I got told I was going to be a dame. I got an email with a really weird subject title. I can’t remember what it said, but I remember thinking oh my goodness, that’s confidential, what is it? Then I scrolled down to the letter and I was just totally surprised and I suddenly had all these emotions. Obviously I was really happy and I screamed a voice message to my mum and dad, and my sister. They couldn’t work out what I was on about. Then I just wrote, I’m gonna be a dame. And they were just like, wow. I was so honoured and proud. Especially because Jason got it too. 

If I could have one more conversation with anyone, it would probably be with my dad’s mum, my nan. She looked after [sister] Emma and me when we were little. And we were horrible. We were just a nightmare giving her hell. I’d want her to have lived a bit longer though, so I could be 16 and actually have an adult conversation with her. I didn’t appreciate her until she got poorly. She got dementia in the end. And I used to go to visit the care home a lot, and it was really hard because she forgot me. I put in all the effort to go and see her, and actually, she forgot me first. 

If I could relive one moment… I actually have two best times ever. The moments just after I’d given birth. Those eight hours in the hospital. I know that sounds mental, but it’s so relaxed once they’re here. I loved the calmness and knowing I had what I wanted – they’re here, they’re alive and it’s all lovely. And you’re just sitting getting cups of tea. I would relive that time and time again, those were the best times of my life.

Laura Kenny is ambassador of a new children’s fitness and wellbeing campaign, a collaboration between Magic Light Pictures and Team GB. Go here to download the Gruffalo and Friends x Team GB activity pack. Find the exclusive apparel range by Asda in stores from 17 July or online.

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