First lady of the track Dame Laura Kenny always knew her porridge from her oats.
When sickness threatened to sabotage her bid for Commonwealth Games gold eight years ago, her only fuel for two days was “bland” oatmeal sludge. But natural born winner Kenny turned Glasgow into her bland of hope and glory, romping home in the points race – and she now begins her bid for a hat-trick of titles at Birmingham 2022.
Husband Sir Jason Kenny admits he's not “overly bothered” about his missus – Britain's greatest female Olympian of all time with five gold medals - cleaning up the bullion again, admitting: “I want her to do well because it makes her happy.”
Yet for Laura, there is unfinished business at the Commonwealth Games because she missed the Gold Coast in 2018 after giving birth to the couple's son, Albie, eight months earlier.
And she has mixed recollections of Glasgow because of illness, saying: “I remember waking up at 2am, going to the doctor and saying, 'I am in severe pain, something's really wrong.' I felt like I had food poisoning, my temperature was through the roof and I told our coach, Chris Newton, 'I don't think I can do this' because it was the day of the individual pursuit competition.
“He said, 'Don't worry, it will be fine' - but it was awful, literally one of the worst races I've ever done, and I spent the next two days being sick right up until the points race. But Chris told me, 'Just eat bland' – and I lived on nothing but porridge, crossing fingers that everything was fine, and luckily it was, but at the time I remember thinking why on earth I was doing this? It was just awful.”
Since her oatmeal ordeal, Kenny has gone on to greatness and motherhood. Twelve months ago she joined the pantheon of sporting supermums by winning Olympic gold in the Madison, and it is 10 years since her Team GB pursuit gang caught the wave on Super Saturday at London 2012.
She said: “I cannot believe it has been 10 years. It’s more than I can ever imagine would be possible for me. Everything happened so fast, I never even processed it. When I went to Rio, the pressure was on - you had to win those two bike races – but I wanted to prove I could do it again.
“And when you throw Albie into the mix, I completely underestimated how hard that would be. We had to stay away from the team, we had to travel separately, but that almost made Tokyo even better. I hold the gold medal in the Madison so highly even in terms of career highlights, probably at the top. Bringing Albie into the world, and having to deal with that, and then coming back and doing it all over again.
“People on the outside will expect me to cross the line first but I have quite low expectations of myself. The Olympics feels like a long time ago, and you are always judged on your last race.”
The Birmingham 2022 track cycling meet will be held in that well-known Brummie suburb, Stratford in east London, at the Lea Valley VeloPark where Kenny launched her Olympic crusade. Sir Jason will be on parade in his coaching capacity, but he claims he will not be as emotionally immersed in his wife's fortunes, saying: “I don't really think about it too much, to be honest.
“I want her to do well because I know it makes her happy, particularly now we've got Albie back home – we're back to normal win, lose or anything in between. It's nice to be back here, being around the village and see how the legacy has been realised – it's really cool, it's such an amazing place.
“I like being at the races as a coach – you get to experience all the thrills and excitement without the stress that comes with performance. I try and support the squad as best as I can, but generally speaking it's down to them now, how fast they go and what they achieve from this point on.”
