Dame Laura Kenny knows just how challenging it can be to be one half of track cycling’s golden couple, but she is backing Emma Finucane and boyfriend Matt Richardson to follow in the slipstream of her and Jason Kenny.
Having represented Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Maidstone-born Richardson has switched allegiances to Great Britain and has now completed a stand-down period that saw him miss last year’s World Championships and the recent European Championships.
Training under Jason Kenny, Richardson is now one of the big stars of the British track cycling team, having come away from Paris with a hat-trick of medals – including a silver medal in the men’s sprint ahead of new teammate Jack Carlin, who won bronze.
Finucane also won three medals last summer, including gold in the women’s team sprint, and Laura Kenny believes that come the Los Angeles Olympics, the pair will be thrust into the limelight in the same way that she and Jason were after their success at London 2012.
But where that was something of an overnight transformation, she is confident that Finucane and Richardson will be better prepared for the increased scrutiny.
“It happened overnight for us. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through. I wouldn’t change it for the world though because I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today,” explained Kenny, who has been appointed as the new president of Commonwealth Games England.
“It is definitely something that takes a bit of getting used to. Emma is under the same management company that we are now, so she’s got that aspect in terms of Rocket Sports have been through it with us. They will know what to tell her.
“It was a steep learning curve for us, it took a lot of getting used to. You don’t ask for it as an athlete, but it is something you have to accept because ultimately your life is in the public eye.
“There are enough people within British Cycling, Jason is a coach, if there was an issue or they felt like it was a distraction, Jason can share our experience quite happily and easily. It will come after the next Olympics, I think. If they are both successful at the next Olympics, it will come for them, and they will have to learn as we did.”
Now 32, Kenny retired from cycling in 2024, ending her career as Britain’s most successful female Olympian.
By being named the new president of Commonwealth Games England, she is the third successive woman – and dame of the realm – to hold the role following Dame Kelly Holmes and Dame Denise Lewis.
While she burst into the national consciousness at the London Olympics in 2012, her senior international debut came two years earlier for Team England at Delhi 2010.
It gave her a first taste of a multi-sport event, and was the start of a love affair with the Commonwealth Games that saw her win gold in Glasgow four years later – triumphing in the points race ahead of Team GB team pursuit colleagues Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker, representing Scotland and Wales, respectively.
Eight years on from Glasgow, Kenny won a gold medal in the scratch race at Birmingham 2022, before conducting an emotional interview with the BBC in which she revealed how much her mental health had been affected by a traumatic few months in which she suffered a miscarriage and then an ectopic pregnancy.
Now, she admits that her victory at those Games ranks up there with anything she has achieved in the sport.
She said: “The Birmingham Commonwealth Games title, I’m so proud of that medal. Sometimes I think that is ranked higher than the Olympic medals just because of everything that I had gone through, that Jase and I had gone through.
“I was very open about it afterwards, which I hadn’t been beforehand. Maybe I should have been, and it would have been easier. I did that interview that everyone saw on the BBC, and it was the first time I had been truly open about feelings about my mental health.
“I feel quite privileged that I’ve gone through my career without feeling like I have to talk to a psych, it’s just not me, it’s never been my personality. I talk a lot as everyone knows. That has always been my tool but the minute I lost that tool and shut down, that was the worst thing. I became my own worst enemy.
“I think by being able to get that voice back and saying it on such a public platform, it helped so many other people and so many other athletes. So, there are two things, the fact I changed my mindset but post that, I could also help others, that is what makes that gold medal so special.”
Part of Kenny’s new role will be to ensure that athletes feel appreciated when it comes to the Commonwealth Games, with the next edition in Glasgow just 500 days away.
At the same time that she was winning scratch gold at Birmingham 2022, Richardson won a pair of gold medals for Australia, and Dame Laura believes there will be plenty of big names who will jump at the chance to return to the Commonwealth stage in 2026.
She added: “I think you will see the Olympic superstars at the Commies. Matty is Team England now, so it’s going to be Team England flying his medal in front of Australia. It will be interesting!
“I know it was chaos, and it got quite a lot of negative press from the Australians’ point of view (when Richardson switched allegiances). But in terms of how it panned out, it was the best situation that Great Britain could have had.
“It’s going to be interesting seeing Matty versus Jack (Carlin), because Jack is Scottish. We might not have a team sprint team to come back to, Jase, after they have knocked each other out!”
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