Laura Kenny becomes first British woman to win gold at three Olympics with PERFECT Madison

London, to Rio, to Tokyo – Laura Kenny‘s gold-rush hasn’t slowed down yet as the Team GB icon storms to victory in the madison alongside Katie Archibald. 

The British pairing won 10 out of 12 sprints for the points in the event, even finding time to lap the field as Denmark and the ROC were left without a response in silver and bronze.  

Kenny has now taken gold at the straight Olympics, becoming the first woman to do so, and bagged her fifth gold medal. 

It is another stunning chapter in the career of Kenny, who took gold in the team pursuit and the omnium at the 2012 London Olympics before repeating the feat in Rio in 2016.

Kenny also claimed silver in the team pursuit earlier in this Olympics but will now top the podium once again.  

She is now behind only husband Jason Kenny, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy on the list of the most decorated British Olympians and is the most successful female track cyclist in Olympic history. 

GB grabbed the gold medal in the women’s madison with Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald

She told the BBC afterwards: ‘I looked up and we had 60 laps to go and I thought I’ve not even touched the pedals! 

‘We rode so conservative, we’ve been doing so much work – our coach’s husband is the under-23 lads’ coach and we’ve done this about five times with them and we just ran it like that. 

‘I’ve never been so confident about a plan – I want to thank those lads because we wouldn’t have had a race. We just raced it again the same as we have before.

‘Unbelievable – I’ve never wanted to win a race so much in all my life and I messaged Jason and said I feel like my Olympics ends today, I love the team pursuit but I felt relief when it was over because this was the one race I wanted to win – I just feel so relieved.’

Delight for Kenny and Archibald as they close in on gold at the Izu Velodrome having dominated the race from start to finish

Archibald added: ‘I’ve been dreaming about having this conversation – I’ve never wanted something so much, I’ve never been so nervous but we’ve been so clinical with our approach. 

‘We had a change of coach last year for this event, we’re going for the all round and trying to spread between events and it feels so satisfying for it to come off.’ 

More to follow…