(AFP) – Husband and wife Olympic cycling champions Jason and Laura Kenny will make their return to international competition at the World Track Cycling Championships this week and former British cyclist Chris Hoy believes they can win medals.
After winning five Olympic gold medals between them in Rio in 2016, the couple got married and took 2017 off to start a family.
And Hoy, whose British record of six Olympic gold medals Jason Kenny matched with a triple victory in Brazil, told AFP that while they won’t dominate as before, they are both capable of going home from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands with something tangible.
“I think Jason will medal in the team sprint, although they (Britain) are not by any stretch of the imagination assured to medal, so if they get a bronze it will be a great result,” Hoy told AFP from Monaco, where he was attending the Laureus Awards.
“Jason has kept ticking it over and was still riding his bike but wasn’t riding flat out.
“He just seems to have come back with rejuvenated enthusiasm for his sport and that is the perfect way to do it. If he had kept racing, I think he would have definitely chucked it in.”
Kenny won three gold medals — in the individual sprint, team sprint and keirin — at both the 2012 and 2016 Games.
His wife, then racing under the name Laura Trott, won two gold medals at both of those Games — in the omnium and team pursuit.
While Kenny, who is part of the men’s sprint team, is an out-and-out sprinter, his wife is an endurance athlete and has been picked in the team pursuit squad.
But Hoy said she is far from guaranteed to be picked for the actual competition.
“She’s good enough to be in the team (and) the team is always good enough to win,” said Hoy. “She has always delivered for the team through thick and thin in the last few years. If she makes the team, they could win it.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see both (Kennys) with medals after next weekend.”
Britain have dominated track cycling at the last three Olympics, winning more than half the gold medals on offer at each.
But they rarely prove so all-conquering at the world championships.
Three years ago in France, they failed to win a single gold medal, while last year they managed only two.
