2024-04-13 04:33:07
- The five-time Olympic medalist in cycling chose family over the opportunity to record another golden page in the history of sports, participating in the games in Paris
Whatever is said about her, it will seem like the clumsy composition of a lazy fifth grader. Flattened eulogies won’t do any good either, as successes will overshadow even the most well-crafted eulogy. Laura Kenny looks like she can at least set foot on Mont Blanc without a problem if she climbs the
the heap of bowls
trophies and medals,
which he conquered with furious pedaling. The cyclist won five Olympic gold medals, became world champion seven times and triumphed at 14 European championships.
The categorical dominance of the track crushed the psyche of the rivals like a roller, and certainly many of them
have sighed
with relief
when the other day the Brit finally announced that she was going to park her bike in the garage. Many expected Kenny to rally and fight for a place in England’s team for the Paris Games, but she chose family happiness over the chance to take part in a fourth Olympics.
“Back at the end of last year, thoughts of giving up started creeping into my head, but I quickly pushed them away. However, they kept coming back and I started to listen to them. In the following months, I carefully weighed the pros and cons if I decided to end my career. The first ones were much more. I had enough of competitions, victories, but also disappointments. I realized that I have every right to enjoy my family happiness, which I so often left in the background for the sake of sports,” announced the legendary cyclist in one of her last meetings with the media. In fact, Laura Kenny came very close to giving up back in 2022.
when life
was darkened
from two consecutive misfortunes. She miscarried, and months later underwent surgery after doctors told her she had an ectopic pregnancy.
“The strange thing is that just before these very sad events my husband and I had achieved great success in sport. A few months earlier I had won my fifth Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and there my husband Jason had become the most successful cyclist after with my seventh Olympic gold medal. And when I had an abortion, I realized that these successes could not console me in any way. I was ready to give up, but my husband convinced me that I would sink even more into self-pity, and it is “It’s good to return to the track,” the legendary athlete admitted then.
Subsequently, she really did
managed to fight back
with depression
and last year, the happy parents boasted to the world about the birth of their second child. Perhaps even then, Laura sensed on a subconscious level that she would never again be able to come back strong enough to taunt the competition like she did in her prime. Because the long stay at the top cost her too much. It is most difficult for her when she becomes a mother for the first time in 2017 and when parallel to her return in 2020 the world is hit by covid.
“I had set out very seriously to prove to those around me that it was entirely possible to give birth and then compete at the highest level again. Well, I proved it, but I paid the price of sleepless nights, endless training and the lack of anything is free time. The pandemic made our lives even more complicated. We had to buy our own plane tickets, book hotels, figure out how to make it to the races despite the restrictions.
We went through some real carnage, but it’s over! Now I’m looking forward to the moment when I can afford the luxury of staying at home and just lounging in front of the TV or in the yard of our house,” smiles Kenny.
The retirement is good news for the two boys, Monty and Albie, but certainly bad for British sport. In her homeland, the cyclist has the status of a demi-goddess, and for the first time great fame has come to her,
after winning
two gold medals
in the all-around and women’s team pursuit events at the London Olympics in 2012. Four years later, she again claimed two Olympic titles at the Rio Games, and in Tokyo she won gold and bronze, becoming the most successful female cyclist in gaming history. And yet the most valuable are the honors from the London Olympics.
“To win two Olympic gold medals in front of your home crowd is an emotion that few have had the chance to experience. Those two weeks changed my life. First I became very famous, and then immediately my relationship with Jason came to light. I remember that at the time I wondered how so much could happen to me in such a short time. Well, it did, and it was just the beginning of a really exciting story that I’m ending today,” Laura Kenny is emphatic.