The British cyclist Laura Kenny is set to be made a dame in the new year honours after her record-breaking exploits at the Tokyo Olympics.
Kenny, 29, became Britain’s most successful female Olympian yesterday when she won her fifth gold, in the women’s madison, with her teammate Katie Archibald, 27.
Boris Johnson and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among those congratulating Kenny. The Cambridges described the win as an “incredible achievement” and the prime minister called it “hugely inspirational”. Kenny’s comfortable victory at the Izu velodrome meant she also became the first British woman to win gold medals at three consecutive Olympics, and the most successful female cyclist in the history of the Games.
Kenny, originally from Harlow in Essex, is already a CBE after her previous successes at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, and Whitehall insiders said that precedents meant she was sure to be made a dame to mark her achievements in Tokyo.
Kenny now has six Olympic medals in total — the same as Charlotte Dujardin — but two more golds. She has a chance to win a seventh in the omnium tomorrow and will enter the race as one of the favourites.
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Archibald’s gold was her third Olympic medal after silver in the team pursuit on Tuesday and gold in the same race in 2016.
Kenny reacted modestly to her win and another set of records. “I feel like we’re just making up these records as we go along,” she said. “It’s not about the records, it’s about the race and I’m just so happy we won the bike race.”
Archibald said: “I’ve been dreaming about having this conversation — I’ve never wanted something so much, I’ve never been so nervous but we’ve been so clinical with our approach.”
The women’s madison, which is named after Madison Square Garden in New York, was included for the first time at this Olympics. It is a relay race over 30km (18 miles) in which each team has two riders on the track but only one is considered active in the race at any one time.
The “inactive” rider is resting at a slower pace elsewhere on the track. The riders tag each other to become active and can do so at any point in the race. Every tenth lap there is a sprint, in which the riders are awarded points depending on where they place. Points can also be won by lapping the rest of the field.
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Kenny and Archibald won 10 of the 12 sprints, including double points on the last lap, and gained a lap on the field to finish with 78 points, more than twice the tally of Denmark in second.
Kenny’s gold was especially significant because it was her first since becoming a mother, having given birth to her son, Albert, in August 2017.
“All week I’ve been saying please don’t ask me about Albie — I’ve never missed him so much,” she said. Kenny had planned to take her son to Japan, but was prevented from doing so by coronavirus restrictions. Instead he is being looked after at home by his grandparents.
Yesterday’s gold took the Kenny family tally of Olympic medals to 14. Her husband Jason, 33, has eight cycling medals, six of them gold, making him jointly the most decorated British Olympian.
Asked this year what it was like to be married to another legend of the sport, Kenny told Olympics.com that their careers were not a source of competition. “There’s not a single feeling or emotion I’ve had that he hasn’t had,” she said. “When I go home and I’m experiencing these emotions I can tell him and he knows how I feel.” Her husband added: “We understand each other. We understand where we are coming from.”
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Kenny credited her madison victory to her coach, Monica Greenwood, and said that she and Archibald had been racing against the men’s under-23 team to perfect their strategy. “Monica came along and said, ‘we are half-heartedly committing to this medal, we need to absolutely commit’, ” Kenny said. “She chose the partnerships so early on. And by doing that it just gave Katie and I the opportunity to really gel. Our coach’s husband is the under-23 lads’ coach and we’ve done this about five times with them . . . I’ve never been so confident about a plan.”
She admitted that she had been unsure of her form after taking silver in Tuesday’s team pursuit final, but said she would go into the omnium believing that another gold is possible.
“I felt like a switch had gone off in my head,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can do this’. So yeah, I feel a lot more confident now than after that team pursuit . . . I was still a little bit battered and bruised. But the legs are feeling good. Hopefully after another night’s sleep I’ll feel even better tomorrow.”
There was more delight in the velodrome when Jack Carlin, 24, who is competing in his first Olympics, added to Team GB’s haul with a bronze in the individual sprint. It was the Scot’s second medal of the Games after winning silver in the team sprint with Jason Kenny and Ryan Owens.
“Tough day today,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I had the same legs as yesterday but I gave it my all.”
