Push to Rio

The 2013 season saw Kenny add to his rainbow jersey collection, with a keirin gold at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships while the highlights of 2014 included two silvers, in team and individual sprint, at the Commonwealth Games and a team sprint gold in the 2014 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Guadalajara.

After a quiet 2015, which still featured National Track Championships golds in the kilo and team sprint, Kenny opened the Olympic year in familiar fashion, with a gold medal in the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Hong Kong team sprint, with Hindes and Callum Skinner.

It proved the perfect warm-up for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London where, after missing a medal ride in the team sprint by an agonising 11 thousandths of a second, Kenny responded magnificently in the sprint. 

Qualifying second to Matthew Glaetzer, by one thousandth of a second, Kenny reached the final in impressive fashion before winning the gold medal 2-1 over the three heats against the Australian.

As had been the case in previous Olympic cycles, Kenny appeared to be peaking at precisely the right moment and, in the team sprint with Hindes and Skinner in Rio, broke the Olympic record by qualifying fastest in 42.562.

Having then seen that Olympic mark fall to New Zealand in the first round, the British made amends in the final, beating the Kiwis to the gold medal and re-claiming their Olympic record in 42.440.

The sprint competition brought Kenny further success as he qualified fastest and lost just one ride, in the semi-final to eventual bronze medallist Denis Dmitriev, on the way to beating team mate Skinner 2-0 in the gold medal final.

The keirin, and Kenny’s third gold medal, was far more dramatic as the Briton advanced comfortably to the final where, after the race was twice re-started because of infringements involving the derny pacing bike, Kenny rode superbly to clinch victory.

In the aftermath of the Games, Kenny secretly retired but shortly after the birth of his first child, announced plans to continue towards Tokyo 2020 and his place in Olympic history.

He made his return to elite competition at the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Apeldoorn in the team sprint - winning silver as part of a five-man squad alongside Phil Hindes, Jack Carlin, Ryan Owens and Joe Truman, to claim Great Britain Cycling Team's first men's team sprint medal since 2011, also in Apeldoorn.

Away from the bike

Kenny was a keen sportsman growing up in the Farnworth area of Bolton and attending Mount St Joseph School, playing a variety of sports and showing early promise as a football goalkeeper, as well as trying his hand at cricket and tennis.

His first introduction to cycling had come at the age of three when Kenny “stole” a bike belonging to older brother Craig and soon taught himself to ride.

But a chance visit to the National Cycling Centre, Manchester, for Jason and Craig, three years his senior, where an uncle had booked the track and had spare places, proved life changing.

Kenny, who had also been a keen keyboard and guitar player as a youngster, showed immediate potential and was soon on the way to a glittering career which saw him become one of the stand-out stars of the 2012 London Olympics.

After those Games, his relationship with fellow Great Britain gold medallist cyclist Laura Trott also made the couple one of the most recognisable in the sports world and, at Christmas 2015, the pair announced their engagement.

They married shortly after their success in Rio in 2016, with Laura giving birth to their first child, Albert Louie Kenny in August 2017.

Like many cyclists, Kenny is a keen fan of motor sports and has spent his off-time driving Ginetta G40 in races.

Palmarès