Jason Kenny: ‘It's been a bit mad'

The star talks to James Shrubsall about Olympic success and his whirlwind year.

- Jason Kenny and Laura Trott

 A nation expects… not in the way that the nation expects as the England football team approach a crunch match in the World Cup. In that scenario we all know the nation doesn’t really expect anything — except maybe tears at bedtime.

But this is cycling. We’re in Rio, it’s Tuesday, August 16, 2016, and Jason Kenny is just about to start the keirin final. Again. A nation, watching back home, is riveted. A nation definitely expects. But Kenny himself? He’s just chilled. “It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if it hadn’t gone my way — it’s just racing isn’t it,” he grins, reflecting on a moment that for almost anyone else, fans included, could never in that moment have been described as ‘just racing’.

“It’s very school-sports-day-ish isn’t it, but you can only try the best you can,” Kenny reasons. “If you come off the track and you’ve emptied the tanks, that’s all you can hope for.”

Cool operator 

Perhaps it’s easy to be so pragmatic when you’re a rider for whom ‘emptying the tanks’ in an Olympic final seems to invariably yield gold. But Kenny insists it’s just how he is.

“For me historically the keirin hasn’t been my best event, I’ve been very hot and cold in it. It’s really easy to get really stressed out… it’s really easy to just mess it up because it’s quite frantic, you’ve got six people on the track, going really fast. It’s really easy to get boxed in or get hung out to dry — I’ve learned just to relax.”