Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, retires from professional cycling

Dame Laura Kenny, the female athlete with the most awards from the Olympics in Britain, has declared that she will no longer continue her career in cycling.

In an Instagram post, the individual who is thirty-one years old stated that it was "time to progress" and consequently, announced their departure.

I am grateful to cycling for all that it has provided me, including my spouse and our expanding household!"

It means everything to me when individuals express that I have motivated females to become more active and begin cycling.

I am grateful to Team GB, the British Cycling team, and all the supporters who have accompanied me on my journey. I extend a special thank you to all my teammates over the years and, of course, to my family for providing the most exceptional support.

Laura said, "It's time to move forward, but continue to follow along for the next part."

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During her time as a track athlete, she obtained five Olympic gold medals and seven world championship titles. She tied the knot with her spouse, Jason Kenny, who is the most victorious British Olympian.

The pair has a duo of male offspring, one who graced the world with his presence in the year 2017 and the other who is set to join the family in 2023.

In November 2021, Dame Laura experienced a miscarriage. Later, two months after that, she had an ectopic pregnancy and was immediately taken to surgery.

She has retired from cycling less than 14 days after Stephen Park, British Cycling's performance director, remarked that there was a low probability of her participating in the Paris Olympics this year.

She had desired to participate in her fourth Olympics, but she did not train with Team GB again after giving birth in July last year.

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In the 2012 Olympics held in London, she claimed two gold medals, one in the women's omnium and another in the team pursuit category. She managed to replicate the same feat when the games were held in Rio four years later in 2016.

Kenny clinched a silver medal for team pursuit and a gold medal for women's madison, together with Katie Archibald, in the Tokyo Olympics. The Games were initially postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic, and the women's madison was a new addition to the event that year.

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In addition to being the woman with the most awards in the Olympics, she is also the initial British female to clinch gold medals for three successive Olympics.

The most recent accolade she received was being a gold medalist in the scratch race at the Commonwealth Games that was held in Birmingham in the year 2022.