Laura Kenny has revealed her decision to retire from cycling was only made earlier this month as she didn't want to 'leave her children' to compete at another Olympic Games.
Kenny is Britain's most successful female Olympian having won five gold medals and one silver across three Games.
She forms one half of Britain's 'golden couple' after marrying to Jason Kenny in 2016 and they have two children together.
Jason retired from competitive cycling shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, but his wife admitted after giving birth to her second son Monty in July that she was targeting a fourth Games in 2024.
Laura Kenny has retired from cycling
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Kenny faced an uphill battle to qualify for the Olympics and earn enough UCI points to make the British squad.
British Cycling's performance director, Stephen Park, said Kenny had a "slim chance" of qualifying for the Paris Games.
But the 31-year-old has now announced her sudden retirement from competitive cycling, insisting she didn't want to be apart from her children.
“It’s a relief to be honest," she told the BBC.
"I’ve had the thoughts for a little while but I only made the decision 10 days ago.
"Now it’s out I can talk about it and it’s quite nice.
“I just kept getting this horrible feeling in my tummy like: ‘You don’t want to go there so why are you leaving the children to go there?’
"And I thought: ‘No, I don’t want to be riding my bike anymore. I’m just doing it because it’s all I’ve ever known.’
"And so when I started getting these gut-wrenching feelings I thought: ‘That’s it. Decision made for me.’”
Laura and Jason Kenny have 15 Olympic medals between them
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Kenny gave birth to her first son in 2017 and she took their new-born child around the world as both she and Jason qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
But Kenny has revealed that it wasn't an easy process in handling motherhood as well as trying to qualify for an Olympics.
"Taking Albie around the world, travelling around the world with him and qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics was absolute carnage," she added.
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Laura Kenny faced a difficult task to qualify for the Paris Olympics
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"I think Jason and I had this way of painting this really beautiful, easy picture and the picture that everyone wants: you can have a baby, you can come back and you can go on to win a gold medal - and it looks easy, and I'm telling you, it was far from easy, it was absolute carnage.
"And there were so many sacrifices along the way; there were so many flights I had to book here, there and everywhere. It was expensive.
"It worked, yes. But it didn't come without some serious heartbreak and sacrifices."
