WHY ATHLETIC GENES DON'T GUARANTEE GOLD MEDALS

Sporty parents are only part of the puzzle when it comes to making an Olympic champion

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During the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, I was on a family hiking holiday in Yorkshire. In the evenings, after a meal and a couple of drinks in the pub, we would sit down to watch the coverage of the day's events. My favourite was track cycling.

If you've never watched a bunch of athletes, all of whom have thighs that are thicker than a supermodel's waist, racing around a polished wooden track at ridiculous speeds, on bikes that only have one gear and no brakes, I can highly recommend it. It's a sport that the UK excels at.

We even have our own 'golden couple' of track cycling, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, who, at the time, were engaged to be married. Sir Jason and Dame Laura Kenny, who were knighted in 2022, have an unbelievable 12 Olympic gold medals between them.