Dame Laura Kenny has recalled a culture of “savage abuse” between team-mates when she first broke into British Cycling’s elite pathway, claiming she once refused to compete until she got an apology.
Britain’s most successful female Olympian, with five gold medals and a silver from three Games, retired earlier this year, removing herself from the selection race for Paris after battling to get fit following the birth of her second son, Monty, last summer.
The 32-year-old was always very complimentary about the way she was supported by British Cycling as a mother, and about the culture within Manchester towards the end of her career. But she told the High Performance Podcast that it was not always that way.
Kenny recalled that in the build-up to London 2012 her team-mates would “shout rude names” towards her and use dirty tricks to “screw” over other team-mates who were all competing for Team GB places.
The Harlow-born rider said she took the issue to British Cycling’s psychiatrist Steve Peters and refused to return to the track until she received an apology from her colleagues.
“I didn’t agree with the language that was being used … it started to get a little bit abusive really,” Kenny said. “There were times I felt I had to step in because the language that was being used wasn’t in a team that I wanted to be part of.
“I didn’t agree with that and so I remember just coming off the track and being like ‘no, we are not talking like that, we’re a team going for gold medals, we are not talking like that’.
“I’m sorry [but] I’m not having swearing – and I swear quite a lot – but when it comes to a bike race, I’m not having people getting shouted rude names. It’s not happening.
“And Steve got brought down and I just remember sitting there and being like ‘I’m not going back on the track until I get an apology, I’m not being spoken to like that’. I’m talking pre-2012, I’m 20, [and] we did eventually apologise to each other.”