sport news Laura Kenny was born with a collapsed lung and only took up cycling aged five ... trends now
She will be remembered as one half of the ultimate golden couple. The dame and the knight. The most successful female and male athletes in British Olympic history.
When her surname was still Trott, Laura Kenny once spoke about wanting her household to collect 12 Olympic gold medals so they could make a clock for their Cheshire home. How perfect, then, that the 31-year-old should join husband Jason in retirement with five golds to go with his seven.
There will never be another timepiece like it. There will never be another couple like them. For nine years, from London 2012 to the delayed Tokyo Games of 2021, track cycling was one long series of Keeping up with the Kennys. Yet that show is now officially over, four months before Paris 2024.
It was typical of Kenny that she should attempt to keep it going and qualify for a fourth Games. She only gave birth to her second son, Monty, last July. But she has spent her life overcoming the odds.
Born six weeks premature with a collapsed lung, Kenny spent more than a month in intensive care. As a child, she suffered from asthma and unexplained blackouts, including one that made her ask her dad: 'What happened? Did I just die?'
When her surname was still Trott, Laura Kenny once spoke about wanting her household to collect 12 Olympic gold medals so they could make a clock for their Cheshire home
How perfect, then, that the 31-year-old should join husband Jason Kenny in retirement with five golds to go with his seven
Kenny only started cycling, aged five, because doctors advised her parents it would help increase her lung capacity. Three years later, she joined Welwyn Wheelers, but as a teenager she hated riding in public. 'I didn't want to pedal down the high street with my helmet on,' she recalled in her book. 'There was a little courtyard of shops where all the so-called cool kids would hang out and they would shout at you as you went past.'
Well, this 5ft 4in pocket rocket would soon become cooler than any kid by winning gold medals in the team pursuit and omnium at London 2012 aged 20 - and the whole country was shouting for her.
With her youthful exuberance and infectious personality, Team GB had a new star. And it soon emerged they had a new star couple, as Laura and Jason were famously photographed kissing during a night at the beach volleyball, sitting just behind David Beckham at Horse Guards Parade, having been invited there by Prince Harry.
'London 2012 is my absolute highlight,' said Kenny on Monday when reflecting on her illustrious career. 'I just never thought I would go to a home Games, let alone go on to win two gold medals at a home Games.
'That is when Jason and I announced that we were together, too. Those weeks really did change my life. They were just insane.' So too was the summer of 2016, when she defended her two titles in Rio de Janeiro then married Jason, who won three golds at those Games, in secret the following month.
Kenny became pregnant later that year, announcing the news to her sister Emma by asking: 'Do you think if I have a baby I'd be destroying my career?' There was
