Laura Trott and Jason Kenny: Perfectly ordinary Olympians
The story behind Team GB's golden couple is one of meticulous planning and dedication rather than glamour and drama
After their record-breaking achievements in Rio, everyone is talking about Team GB's golden couple Laura Trott and Jason Kenny.
Between them, they have won ten Olympic gold medals and have established themselves as two of the most successful Olympians the UK has ever produced.
But the two cyclists offer little for the gossip columnists to write about beyond Trott's interest in fashion and ability to put her hair in braids. Kenny, by his own admission, is a "miserable sod".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"You might forgive Laura Trott and Jason Kenny for leaving Rio rather full of themselves," says Tom Fordyce of the BBC. "Five competitions between them, five golds won. As of Tuesday night, had the couple been a country they would have sat 13th on the medal table, above Jamaica, Kenya and Brazil. That would be to misunderstand what makes them tick. This is a couple who got engaged while on the sofa watching an episode of EastEnders.
"Cycling superstars on their own, together they can be almost ordinary, almost invisible."
That, however, may be about to change, he says. After their Rio successes, the couple are firmly in the public eye.
So is there much to read about? The Daily Mail devotes almost 2,000 words to their relationship and recounts how Trott rose to the pinnacle of her sport despite being born premature with a collapsed lung and later being diagnosed with asthma.
"Later, she developed a condition that caused her to faint without warning, and even now she struggles with acid reflux that can make her throw up after training," adds the paper.
It talks of "a truly heart-warming love story," before admitting that "despite their athletic feats, their relationship couldn’t be more ordinary".
Trott and Kenny live together in Cheshire with their dogs, reports the paper: "At home, Jason cooks – Laura is so inept in the kitchen that she once set the cooker on fire while trying to bake a potato under the grill – while she does the housework."
There are also revelations about their diet - "breakfast comprises cereal and toast, lunch is an omelette, and dinner is a tuna bake or occasionally a Sunday roast" - and hobbies - "Sundays are their only days off, and even then they often find themselves cycling". As for children, the payer says they will wait until they are both retired from sport.
Perhaps their route to global sporting domination is more illuminating? Barney Ronay of The Guardian sees the couple as the embodiment of Team GB's success at Rio.
"The velodrome has been the engine, hub, and all-round g-spot of British success," he says.
Everything they did in Rio "was an act of sporting intimidation", he adds. "Trott in particular has a genuine star presence about her now, an unignorable quality even as she prowls the pits. Preparing to compete against this focused, ruthless, quietly menacing collection of blue lycra champs looks to be a genuinely oppressive experience for the rest of the field.
"Team GB cycling will stand as a triumph of central planning and elite well-groomed talent given a platform to shine."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials say
Speed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
California declares bird flu emergency
Speed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, Musk sink spending bill, teeing up shutdown
Speed Read House Republicans abandoned the bill at the behest of the two men
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Gallery: Team GB medal hopes at the 2022 World Athletics Championships
In the Spotlight The worlds get underway at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon
By Mike Starling, The Week UK Published
-
Winter Olympics: ‘disaster averted’ for Team GB as curling stars win medals
feature Team GB finished a disappointing games with just two medals
By Mike Starling Published
-
The scandal that could tarnish Team GB
feature CJ Ujah protested his innocence after testing positive for two banned substances
By The Week Staff Published
-
Tokyo’s ‘grand human opera’: a tonic for a weary world
In Depth Despite widespread ambivalence and fear, the Olympic Games managed to bring us together and lift our spirits
By The Week Staff Published
-
Tokyo’s ‘grand human opera’: a tonic for a weary world
In Depth Despite widespread ambivalence and fear, the Olympic Games managed to bring us together and lift our spirits
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sky Brown: ‘I’m so stoked - I really hope I inspire some girls’
In the Spotlight A year after a horror fall the skateboarder, 13, becomes Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist
By Mike Starling, The Week UK Published
-
Bring on Paris: ‘so much more to come’ from Charlotte Dujardin and Gio
In the Spotlight With two medals in Tokyo Dujardin is now Britain’s most decorated female Olympian
By Mike Starling, The Week UK Published
-
Pool party: golden ‘new era’ for British swimming
feature Team GB swimmers made a splash at the Tokyo Olympics
By Mike Starling Last updated