Dame Laura Kenny: Olympic gold medalist on staying motivated for Paris 2024 and Team GB's partnership with University of Hull

As her second child with fellow Olympian husband Sir Jason Kenny is due in summer, she will have a year to train for Paris 2024 - but says she is not concerned about ending her career on a high.

“I really struggle with the idea of not doing it,” says Dame Laura, who shares the accolade of being the most-decorated British female Olympic athlete with equestrian dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin (although the cyclist has won more golds).

“I love it too much. And I don't really care about a happy ending. Like, you know how people go into their careers and they try and end on a high? I'm not really bothered about that because I love the sport so much. So for as long as I keep enjoying it, I've always said I'll keep doing it.”

She adds: “If you end at the top, how do you know that was the end? Maybe you could’ve gone on to another one.”

Dame Laura appeared at the Hull University stand and took part in a Q&A at UCAS Discovery London, an event on March 27 and 28 which allowed youngsters to explore what might be possible for them after school and college.

She talks about the similarities of sportspeople and students. “We have lots of pressure. Well, they have pressure to do exams. We have lots of times when people ask us questions about our careers. Bigging yourself up is difficult. It feels weird to be like, ‘Yeah, I'm proud. I feel really proud of my career’ - and that's (like) writing a personal statement.

“I mean, daily pressures, making choices. I have to make career choices all the time, whether that be to go to a bike race, whether that be to miss a bike race, because I should be training. Well, that could be whether they should be studying or whether they should be going to a lecture. I feel like lots of things actually coincide with being a student and being an athlete.”

Despite being born premature with a collapsed lung and developing asthma, Dame Laura, from Harlow in Essex, has gone on to win five Olympic gold medals along with numouers world championships and Commonwealth titles too.

During the heady events of the London 2012 Olympic Games, she won gold in the omnium and team pursuit with partners Joanna Rowsell Shand and Dani Rowe.

Four years later at Rio 2016, she bagged two more golds - becoming the first British woman to win four Olympic titles - defending her team pursuit and omnium titles.

She married fellow track cyclist Sir Jason in September that year and the couple had their first son, Albert (or ‘Albie’), in August 2017.

At Tokyo 2020 (which took place in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic), Dame Laura won another title as part of the team pursuit alongside Katie Archibald, Neah Evans, Josie Knight and Elinor Barker, taking silver.

However, the women's madison made its debut in Japan, and Dame Laura and Archibald outclassed all to come first - placing her in history as the first British woman to win gold at three Olympics, and only female to win five for this country.

She was named Team GB flagbearer for the Tokyo closing ceremony, and was made a Dame in the 2022 New Year Honours, while her husband received a Knighthood.

So, not a bad 10 years.

“I'm really proud of what I've been able to achieve,” she says. “I mean, each one has a different kind of thing with it. So London 2012 was my first one. And just to be able to do that in front of a home crowd under all that pressure, for me that's what makes it stand out, that's what makes it different but also because it was my first, as cliche as it is, all my dreams came true at London 2012. All I ever wanted to be was an Olympic champion. And then obviously Rio, it was proving that I wasn't just a one hit wonder, that I could do it again. Not many people go to back to back Olympics and win gold medals. And I wanted to prove that I could be one of the standouts. Between Rio and Tokyo I had Albie and it just brought a whole new element of motivation, but also stress, but I also wanted to prove that you can have both,” she says.

It’s something she talked about in the Q&A, she says, adding that “it looks like ‘Oh, she's got everything’. It's not like that - you should see us at home, we're absolute carnage and it's a different level of busy that I completely underestimated before having Albie. But also, I look back and I just think, ‘God, we did that as parents’. We were both parents and both went to Tokyo and won. To do that really was insane, so the standout in terms of actually getting there and it being hard was Tokyo.”

In 2022, Dame Laura revealed that she had undergone surgery due to an ectopic pregnancy, having previously suffered a miscarriage in November 2021.

However, she is due to give birth to her second boy in July this year, meaning she has about a year to train for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

But Dame Laura, who turns 31 this, has always been driven. “I think I'm just really determined, like I'm almost lethal determined,” she says.

“As an athlete I do think you have to have a missing piece, otherwise you wouldn’t put yourself through it,” she laughs.

“I'm self motivated. I don't do it for anyone else. The only reason I want to go out and ride my bike is because I want to do it.”

It’s a topic which is relevant to the partnership with Hull university, she believes, because some prospective students might not do what is right for them when choosing their career paths.

“I do think you can get caught up. I mean, I actually do remember going through the university process, I did apply to go to uni, although I never went, and I do remember thinking, ‘Oh, well somebody thinks this is a good university. I'll just put that one down’. And all right, at the time, it didn't really matter to me, but I think you see it a lot with friendship groups putting down the same universities when it might not necessarily be the right decision for them. So I do think sometimes you’ve got to just think outside the box and think purely from your perspective, like, don't be a sheep.”

She adds that “I've managed to be as successful as I am because I've never been embarrassed or ashamed of asking questions”.

The Hull and Team GB partnership - announced in 2019 to incorporate both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 games, as well as the Beijing 2022 winter competition - is seen as mutually beneficial.

With shared information, joint research and enterprise projects delivered by the university in support of Team GB, it is billed as giving opportunities to students, staff and communities. This includes participation in Team GB events, developing courses, guest speaking and CV-boosting opportunities such as work experience and volunteering.

From the other side, Dame Laura is also interested in how the partnership might help those athletes who are looking to find their way in the world after sport, which can be “savage” when it comes to how soon competitors find themselves out of a job.

“I'm lucky. I finished studying when I was 18. I did my A levels but I was quite lucky in the fact that I've always had sponsorship and stuff, so for me, my career has kind of carried on for quite a long time. I signed with British Cycling in 2010, I've been part of that ever since. But that's not always the case. Some athletes drop out sooner. And you feel like you're left in the lurch a bit. I've known a lot of people just to sort of get chucked off and then they're like, ‘Well, what next?’ So I just think just to be able to have someone that you could go to and speak to and have the help, I think it's actually massively important for athlete welfare.”

The cycling star also praises former Leeds Rhinos rugby player Rob Burrow for his campaigning towards finding a cure for motor neurone disease. Dame Laura’s nan, Kathlene Potter, died of the condition while the athlete was growing up.

“It's really sad, isn't it, that the way we hear about this is through people that we know having these diseases? I mean, when my nan got diagnosed with MND, I didn't even understand what it was. And no one even at school knew what it was and it was difficult because obviously, through the day to day, you go through watching them literally deteriorate, and their mind is still working. And it's just so sad. So every time I'd go into school, I'd be like, ‘Oh, her hands don't work today’. And people just didn't seem to understand what it was. But obviously it's sad that it takes someone like Rob to have it for it now to be such in the focus of people's minds. Obviously I wish people didn't have to go through it for it to be like that.

“But what they're doing to raise money has just been absolutely incredible,” she says, referring to Mr Burrow, who was diagnosed in December 2019, and his former team mate Kevin Sinfield, who has raised millions of pounds through challenges such as completing seven ultra marathons in seven days late last year.

“They're doing such extreme activities aren't they, to put it out there?

“I am glad that motor neurone disease is actually now at the forefront of people's minds.”

Her nan died when she was 14, and she is aware progress will have been made and a lot of charity work has taken place, but adds that “it seems like it's been a long time coming that we're now trying to fight for a cure rather than just making life longer”.

Back to her sporting goals, and with a little over a year until her next chance of Olympic gold, is she feeling daunted?

“Yes and no. Like I said, I've done it before, I know what's coming. I mean, it's daunting because I know what's coming,” she says with a chuckle. “I’ve done it. Hopefully, I will just fall back into that routine and everything will just be okay.”