The amazing sacrifices of Olympic cycling’s super couple Jason Kenny and Laura Trott
Cycling’s perfect pair are as down to earth as they come
WITH tears of joy, mum Lorraine Kenny summed up the fantastic five-times Olympic gold triumph of her son Jason and his fiancée Laura Trott.
She said: “What a power couple — can you imagine the grandchildren?”
The cycling super-duo had just become the success story of the Rio games, each racking up another win to bring their astonishing total to ten gold medals between them.
Soon after Jason’s latest victory, in the keirin motor-paced event, an emotional Laura tweeted: “Arghhh!! I love him to bits. Our kids have got to get some of these genes, right?”
But while they and their offspring would no doubt take after cinema superhero family The Incredibles, cycling’s perfect pair are as down to earth as they come.
This is a couple who got engaged while watching EastEnders.
Summing them up, Laura’s dad Adrian said: “The difference in their characters is what makes it work for them. Until Jason gets to know you, he is a little bit shy. He’s quiet and understated. Laura is bubbly, chatty — just as you see in her interviews.
“If they were both like Jason, God only knows how they’d talk about anything. And God forbid having two Lauras in a house.”
Laura made herself at home, feet on the sofa
“It’s made a little bit easier because Laura is always winning by a mile.”
Laura agreed: “It’s definitely more nerve-racking watching. I’m so in control when I’m riding, I know where I’m going to be, where I’m going to put myself. But when Jason’s riding I have no idea what’s going through his head.
“It’s so much more scary, and with the false starts as well, I thought someone was going to get disqualified.
“I love the fact we’re here in Rio together. There’s always someone to lean on. We have our team-mates and there’s a lot of support around us but it’s not the same.
“To be able to go into the room and tell Jason exactly how I’m feeling is really important and something that’s been a real help towards winning these medals.”
And Laura joked about their medal tally on Sky News: “We need to win more, then we could have made a clock. That would have been cool — an Olympic clock.”
Her determination to succeed and make the necessary sacrifices are what struck Laura’s agent Luke Lloyd Davies, who revealed how she told him: “I want to be be the most decorated British Olympian of all time.”
He added: “Off the bike she is a really sweet twentysomething. She likes getting dressed up, she dreams of Mulberry bags and Prada shoes. But when her peers are out partying she is burying herself in training.”
The couple’s dedication to their sport has brought them differing success when it comes to attracting sponsorship deals.
Currently Jason, right, gets Lottery funding as an elite athlete, up to a maximum of £65,000 a year, but has no sponsors, despite having won more golds than Laura and competing in three Olympics. He has said: “I’m not very marketable, which is fine. I can’t help being a miserable sod!”
Laura gets elite Lottery funding up to the same £65,000 limit, but is also sponsored by Prudential and Adidas. She has her own range of bikes at Halfords and has posed on a DFS sofa for an ad campaign in which she wore a Stella McCartney dress.
She advertises Ohso Chocolates as a “brand ambassador”, and on social media she has thanked Jaguar for her new car, as well as other companies for bike lights and a leather rucksack.
As for the couple’s future, children are on the cards — but only after cycling finishes.
Laura said: “I want to end my career first.
“I don’t want to be pushed out of the sport, so whether it’s after Tokyo in 2020 or the Games after, I don’t want to draw a line because I love it too much.”
And Jason’s love of the sport, and of the couple’s current triumph in Rio, is second only to his love for Laura.
He said: “We’re in a really privileged position and I feel really lucky to be able to share it with Laura.
“We’re just enjoying this for now. Then we’re getting married and disappearing on honeymoon.”