Katy Marchant, Paris 2024 team sprint Olympic champion, retires from elite cycling
Katy Marchant, the 33-year-old Olympic gold medallist in the women’s team sprint at the 2024 Paris Games, announced her retirement from elite cycling on 28 September 2026. The Leeds-born rider’s decision follows a year in which she also secured world and European titles.
Marchant won team sprint gold in Paris alongside Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell and added world and European crowns in 2024. “I’ve achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of achieving,” Marchant said, speaking only a few months after she had set a goal of racing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. “It just feels really strange. It’s not been a difficult decision. Don’t get me wrong, there’s been moments where I’ve thought: ‘Could I just, should I just, what if I just?’ But I know what it takes to push on for another two years.”
Marchant reached the Olympic summit in Paris two years after the birth of her first son, Arthur, and returned to competition in January at the British Track Championships six months after the birth of her second son, Walter. She described a mix of pride and changing priorities as factors in the choice to stop competing at elite level.
In the run-up to the Commonwealth Games she had said she hoped to pursue selection for Los Angeles, but after helping England to team sprint silver in Glasgow she altered her plans. “I had a day off after two pretty successful days racing, and I just had this funny feeling,” she said; she spoke with her husband, Rob, before returning for the final races of the Commonwealth programme and went on to finish fifth in the Keirin before taking time to reach a final decision.
The Paris team sprint gold was Marchant’s second Olympic medal, following individual sprint bronze on her debut at the Rio Games in 2016. Her honours list also includes two world bronze medals, two European silver medals and a team sprint bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, in addition to the 2024 world and European titles.
Marchant followed other British riders such as Dame Laura Kenny, Dame Sarah Storey and Lizzie Deignan in returning to elite competition after becoming a mother, but she was the first to do so in track sprinting. For several years she was the sole senior women’s sprinter in the Great Britain squad, competing alone in Tokyo, and she took a role in supporting younger teammates as they developed towards the Paris success. “There’s a small part of me that’s a little bit sad I’m not going to be part of that any more, but at the same time I carry a lot of pride that I helped build that,” she said.
“I’m incredibly proud of where I’ve got to and what I’ve done. I just don’t want to make those choices any more to keep doing what it takes to get to LA,” Marchant added, and later said: “I’m incredibly proud I got to do those things and hopefully pave the way not just for cyclists, but also mums in sport to be able to achieve that.”