Dame Laura Kenny considered quitting cycling after traumatic few months

Record-breaking Olympian Dame Laura Kenny has revealed she considered walking away from cycling after suffering an ectopic pregnancy earlier this year.

Kenny revealed in April that she had suffered a miscarriage at nine weeks in November. In January, the 30-year-old contracted coronavirus and was taken to hospital where it was discovered she was having an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilised egg implants itself outside the womb.

The five-time Olympic champion returned to racing in April with a team pursuit silver at the Nations Cup in Glasgow, and will be back on track in London – scene of her first Olympic successesin 2012 – this weekend when the Commonwealth Games get under way.

But Kenny said there was a point at the start of the year where, but for the support of her husband and fellow Olympian Jason and their son Albie, she could have ended a career that has yielded six Olympic medals.

“I felt like nothing was going our way at all,” Kenny said. “January was a tipping point, I was at breaking point. Without Jason, I think I’d have just canned everything, just gone, ‘You know what, I can’t even cope with doing any of this (cycling)’.

“But I grabbed for my safety blanket and decided I needed to ride my bike again. For me, that’s what I’ve done for the last 13 years. It feels like a safe place, the obvious thing for me to do when I felt that broken was to go out and ride my bike again.

“It just started to come back again and once I started, I got back into the rhythm of things.

“It put lots of things into perspective. It really did make me think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ It’s because I enjoy it, that’s why, and it made me realise that more than ever.”

Kenny will race for England in the team pursuit, scratch and points