I want my kids to do sport but I'll never be a pushy parent

Olympian Dame Laura Kenny tells CAMILLA FOSTER about the “chaos” of motherhood and sport's important life lessons

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FIVE-TIME Olympic gold medallist Dame Laura Kenny recently gave birth to her third child Lilian, and has revealed that motherhood has taught her to embrace the chaos of family life.

One half of cycling’s golden couple, alongside her husband Sir Jason Kenny, she says: “When you have children, certainly when you're pregnant, you have this idea in your head of what being a parent is going to be like. Then your first little one comes along, and it’s completely different to what you see as an ideal situation,” reflects the 33-year-old, who is also mum to seven-year-old Albie and one-year-old Monty.

“For example, my eldest didn’t sleep through the night until he was four and that wasn’t how I imagined being a parent. But it’s all about being able to adapt and you learn from quite early on that nothing is perfect, like no life or child is perfect.”

Despite being warned about the pressures of having two children under two, she admits to being surprised at the ‘chaos’.

“I was like, oh I’m fine with that”, says Laura, “but now Lily’s actually here - it is kind of carnage.”

The most important lesson the retired cyclist hopes to instil in her children is confidence.

“The biggest thing cycling ever gave me was confidence,” says Laura. “Sport gave me confidence because I was most comfortable there. The classroom and learning environment just wasn’t for me, but if you put me on a playing field, it changed my mentality completely.