Jason Kenny

Jason Kenny was a multiple world champion at junior level winning three gold medals at both the World and European junior track championships in 2006. He made his World Cup debut for Great Britain late in 2006 as a member of the team sprint trio that posted a victory in Moscow. Although he raced for his country in World Cup events in the 2007/08 season it was considered a mild surprise when he was chosen for Beijing ahead of more experienced team-mates.

On his first appearance on the Olympic stage he rode second wheel for the British team sprinters as they set a new world best for the event and then went on help the team defeat their French rivals for the Olympic title. Kenny broke his personal best time by a considerable margin in qualifying for the individual sprint and won every heat he contested until defeated by compatriot Chris Hoy in the final.

Kenny was defeated by France’s Gregory Bauge in the final of the sprint event at the 2011 World Championships but was elevated to world champion when Bauge had his results annulled for most of 2011 after missing three competition doping tests. The following year, Kenny took his tally of Olympic gold medals to three when he won the individual and team sprint at London 2012. He followed that with a second World Championship gold medal when he won the keirin in Minsk in 2013, and just before the 2016 Olympics, he won his third world title in the individual sprint. At Rio, Kenny took his total of Olympic medals to seven, including a record equaling six golds by a British athlete (shared with fellow cyclist Chris Hoy, as he once more added the two sprint titles and also the keirin gold to his collection. His total of seven medals is just one behind the all-time Olympic cycling record of Bradley Wiggins. In September 2016 Jason married fellow British Olympic cyclist Laura Trott and their son, Albert, was born in August 2017.In 2022, Jason and Lara made history as the first husband and wife to be made Sir and Dame in the same UK honours list.