Katie Archibald, the Scottish track cyclist who won gold medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, has announced her retirement with immediate effect.
The decision means the 32-year-old, who also won multiple world, European and Commonwealth titles, will not compete in the summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Archibald said: “The draw of the real world has been pulling me for a while, but I’ve been too scared to leave the world I know and love and, ultimately, to let go of something I’m good at.”
She is now retraining to be a nurse. “I’ve fallen completely in love with the whole thing,” Archibald said. “When I let my friends and teammates know I was retiring from sport, they assumed it was because I wasn’t coping doing both.”
Archibald, who also won team pursuit silver at the Tokyo Games along with gold in the Madison, first came to prominence through grass-track racing against men at events such as the Highland Games. She was then selected for the Great Britain academy squad at Manchester velodrome.
“When you’re 19 and somebody says: ‘We’ll let you train full-time and target the Commonwealths and maybe even an Olympics,’ there’s never going to be another thought which says: ‘Ah, well, what are my other options?’” she told the Guardian in 2024. “It was the most unbelievable opportunity and thank goodness I went for it.”
She proved a quick learner and, as one of a stellar quartet, won the 2013 European team pursuit title on her competitive debut alongside Laura Kenny, Dani Rowe and Elinor Barker.
She became a serial medal winner, taking six European titles, a world title and a Commonwealth Games bronze in the buildup to her Olympic debut in Rio 2016, where she won team pursuit gold with Kenny, Barker and Joanna Rowsell.
In 13 years of racing Archibald won 51 medals while at world, European, Commonwealth and Olympic levels to establish herself as one of track cycling’s highest achievers.
However, alongside the highs were some traumatic lows, none more so than the unexpected death of her partner, Rab Wardell, in 2022.
At the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, Archibald led Team GB’s pursuiters to an emotionally-charged victory.
The empathy and emotional intelligence that made her such a popular and resilient teammate has fuelled her transition from competition to nursing.
“I really want to stress that the nursing training isn’t forcing me into retirement,” she said. “At the same time, this thing that I am just enamoured with is making me excited for the future, and that makes this transition less scary.”
Team GB’s performance director, Stephen Park, described Archibald as “relentless” and said that “her performances on track and habits and characteristics, off the bike, set the tone for the rest of the team and elevate those around her.
“She is an incredibly generous member of the squad, having supported the development of many young riders who were initially inspired by her to take up the sport, and have been able to enjoy huge moments in their career as her teammate.”
Archibald said she would “keep learning, keep seeing the world, keep meeting incredible people,” but added: “I don’t know where I’ll get these feelings again, though.”
“Riding the last lap of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games team pursuit final, I was so connected to the effort it was – just as in 2014 – like my mind left my body,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to experience that feeling in the future.”
