Team GB’s most successful female Olympics star ever set to MISS 2024 Games in Paris after birth of second child
FIVE-TIME Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny looks set to miss out on the Paris Games next summer.
The 31-year-old track cyclist triumphed in London, Rio and Tokyo to become Britain’s most successful ever female Olympian.
On July 20, Kenny and her husband Jason Kenny – a seven-time Olympic gold medallist – welcomed their second child, Monty.
And British Cycling’s performance director Stephen Park has now cast major doubt over her participation at the 2024 Games.
Speaking ahead of the UCI World Cycling Championships, which begin in Glasgow this week, Park told The Telegraph: “I think it’s going to be a stretch for her to come back for Paris.”
Kenny gave birth to her first son, Albie, back in 2017 – before she went on to claim gold and silver in Tokyo four years later.
After the Games, she suffered a miscarriage in November 2021 and an ectopic pregnancy in January 2022.
When asked about the Paris Games in May, she told the Manchester Evening News: “I just think never say never.
“If I don’t try I’ll never know and I know a year seems insane but people have done madder things.
“If I don’t try, I won’t know whether I’ll make it or not. I don’t want to look back thinking ‘what if I had tried?’”
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But Park remains unconvinced about the selection of Kenny – who also has a silver Olympic medal to go with her five gold.
He added: “Certainly we’re expecting [Kenny] to come back onto the bike. She’s got a return-to-ride programme.
“But, you know, you’ve got to come back and be in good form. And she’s in an incredibly competitive squad with some very strong riders. And she’s got to be absolutely ready and motivated to do that.
“The last time I spoke to her, she was [motivated]. But you know, she’s only just had a baby.
“So I dare say there’ll be some time for that to settle in before she’s in a position to think about [the Olympics].”
Kenny was a part of the team pursuit quartet that claimed gold at London 2012, before she went on to win another in the omnium.
She repeated the feat in Rio with two more golds in the same events.
And in Tokyo she followed up a silver in the team pursuit with a dominant gold in the madison alongside good friend Katie Archibald.