Five-time Olympic cycling champion Laura Kenny has revealed that she suffered a miscarriage after falling pregnant following Tokyo 2020 last summer.
Kenny, whose is married to cyclist and Team GB's most decorated Olympian Jason Kenny, said in a social media post on Friday that she miscarried in November when she was nine weeks pregnant. The pair have a son, Albie, who was born in 2017.
The country's most successful female Olympian Kenny added that she went to hospital in mid-January after contracting COVID-19 before discovering she was having an ectopic pregnancy.
Kenny shared her emotions on Instagram after she returned to racing this week at the UCI Track Nations Cup. The 29-year-old won her fifth Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020, finishing first in the madison alongside Katie Arichbold.
"Back at a bike race! I didn't expect to be back at a race any time soon but life doesn't always go to plan does it," she said in an Instagram post.
"Since the Olympics we haven't had much luck and it's been the hardest few months I've ever had to go through. Jason and I fell pregnant immediately after the games and we were absolutely chuffed to bits. But unfortunately in November when commentating at the track champions league I miscarried our baby at nine weeks. I've never felt so lost and sad. It felt like a part of me had been torn away.
"I grabbed for my safety blanket, bike riding! I found myself back in my happy place training again. I then caught COVID-19 in mid-January and found myself feeling really very unwell. I didn't have typical COVID-19 symptoms and I just felt I needed to go to hospital. A day later I found myself in A&E being rushed to theatre because I was having an ectopic pregnancy. Scared doesn't even come close. I lost a falopion tube that day.
"I've always known I was tough, but sometimes life pushes you to an unbearable limit. If it wasn't for Jason and Albie getting me through the day to day I'd have been broken."