It’s been a true honour – Katie Archibald retiring after 13 years as top cyclist

Two-time Olympic champion Katie Archibald has announced her retirement from elite competition after 13 years at the top.

The 32-year-old revealed she has begun training as a nurse but insisted that was not the driving force in her decision to end a glittering career on the bike which has yielded 51 medals at world, European, Commonwealth and Olympic level.

A rider who won a European team pursuit title on her senior competitive debut in 2013 will bow out as a reigning world and European champion, having won the world Madison title with Maddie Leech last year, and her eighth European team pursuit title in Konya, Turkey, earlier this year.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katie Archibald (@_katiearchibald)

“I love racing my bike,” Archibald said. “After 13 years competing on the international stage, and a lifetime competing against my big brother (John, a two-time Commonwealth medallist), I’ve decided to retire from the former.

“Being part of the Great Britain Cycling Team has meant being part of something bigger than myself, and it’s been a true honour to race my bike alongside the best in the country.”

Archibald has been both one of the biggest talents and biggest characters in the Great Britain team since she first arrived at the Manchester velodrome as a teenager.

She has worn her heart on her sleeve throughout her career, while her spirit has carried her through intensely difficult moments.

The worst of those was in 2022 when Archibald lost her partner, having tried to save him as he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in bed beside her aged just 37.

In 2024, Archibald suffered a freak injury in her garden that forced her to miss the Paris Olympics, but she ended the year helping Great Britain retain their team pursuit world title.

Archibald’s first Olympic gold medal came on debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 as she won the team pursuit crown alongside Laura Kenny, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell Shand.

At the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, she and Kenny won the inaugural women’s Olympic Madison, having already been part of the team that won silver in the pursuit.

“In the early stages of my career, I was sure I would never willingly walk away,” Archibald added.

“I’ve been born in the right place at the right time with a talent that’s let me make a job of something people do for fun – that’s wild. I felt that giving this up before it was ripped from my hands would be irrational.

“At some point, though, I realised no-one was going to rip it from my hands. I realised the decision would have to be mine, and I’ve found that truth quite hard to handle.”

Speaking about her latest career move, Archibald said she began training as a nurse last September and has “fallen completely in love with the whole thing”, but she had continued to train alongside her studies until now.

“I really want to stress that the nursing training isn’t forcing me into retirement,” she added. “At the same time, this thing that I’m just enamoured with is making me excited for the future, and that makes this transition less scary.”