Olympic champion Katy Marchant retires from elite cycling at 33

Olympic team sprint champion Katy Marchant has retired from elite cycling at 33, ending a career that included medals at two Olympic Games. The Independent reported her decision on September 28, with the British rider choosing not to continue towards the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

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Marchant told Cycling Weekly and other media that she understood the commitment another two years would require and no longer wanted to make those choices. She described retirement as a decision she wanted to take on her own terms, rather than waiting until she was no longer physically capable of competing.

Her final competition was this summer's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, according to Cycling Weekly. Marchant helped England win silver in the team sprint before finishing fifth in the keirin. She said thoughts of retirement first emerged during those championships, bringing her time with the Great Britain squad to an end after 13 years.

Her cycling career followed an earlier involvement in heptathlon. British Cycling's rider profile records that strong power readings during a Wattbike test helped prompt the switch, and she joined its Senior Academy in 2013. She progressed to the podium squad after winning team sprint and keirin silvers, plus individual sprint bronze, at that year's British championships.

The Olympic breakthrough came at Rio 2016, where Marchant earned individual sprint bronze. Eight years later, she joined Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell to win the women's team sprint in Paris. British Cycling's account of the final records a time of 45.186 seconds against New Zealand, with the British trio setting their third world record of the evening.

Paris was part of a wider run of success in 2024. British Cycling records that Marchant became the first British woman to win the European 500m time-trial title, then added a world team sprint crown and individual world bronze medals in the keirin and 500m time trial. She also returned to elite competition after the births of both her sons, a feature of her career highlighted by The Independent.