Laura Kenny in no hurry to return to the track but still has Tokyo 2020 ambition
The 25-year-old has shelved thoughts of competing at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Laura and Jason Kenny, with 10 Olympic gold medals between them, are taking their time for a change.
Laura Kenny (nee Trott) turned 25 on Monday and is pregnant with the couple’s first child, due in August. Jason Kenny, who won three Olympic golds in Rio last August to take his personal tally to six, is on an extended sabbatical as he considers whether to continue to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Laura Kenny is intent on competing at her third Olympics and adding to her haul of four golds which makes her Britain’s most successful female Olympian.
But the Cheshunt rider has shelved thoughts of rushing back for the March 2018 Track Cycling World Championships or the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast the following month.
Speaking as British Cycling announced the HSBC UK City Ride programme for mass participation events in 13 cities, Kenny told Press Association Sport: “Initially I thought maybe I would go to the Commonwealth Games, but it’s just too soon.
“I don’t want to rush back in and get six months down the line and think ‘why did I do that?’ I want to enjoy time at home with Jason and the new baby and start when I feel ready, rather than when I feel like I have to be ready.”
Jason Kenny is on the first extended break of a career which first saw him win Olympic gold and silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, aged 20. The 29-year-old Bolton rider is yet to commit to Tokyo, enjoying racing cars and family time. The couple married last September.
Laura Kenny added: “He’s not set on retiring. He wants to just give himself time. He also wants the baby to arrive first and then see how he feels. He could turn round now and say ‘I’m done, I’m finished’ and then get a year down the line and say ‘actually, I want to start again’.
“There’s no need to make such a rash decision at this moment. You need to give yourself time and actually see how you feel.”
Laura Kenny has sought advice from 14-time Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey and former heptathlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, who returned to competition as mothers and are both now pregnant for a second time.
She added: “It was great to listen to the dos and the don’ts and what they would change if they could do it all over again.”
Laura Kenny had competed at every Track Cycling World Championships since her first in 2011 until this month’s event in Hong Kong.
Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald thrived in her absence, putting their hands up for selection in the multi-discipline omnium event Laura Kenny has won at the last two Olympics.
But Laura Kenny said: “It’s going to be such a long time before I go back to competing, it (the competitive spirit) will just come. You’ve got to be the best in your nation if you’re going to have any chance of winning at the Olympics.”
