Tokyo Olympics: Jason Kenny becomes first Great Britain athlete to win 7 gold medals

Aug 08, 2021

Shizuoka [Japan], August 8 : Jason Kenny became the first Great Britain athlete to win seven Olympic gold medals after storming onto the podium in the men's Keirin final, 1/6th place of the track cycling on day sixteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games here at Izu Velodrome on Sunday.
The legendary cyclist from Great Britain was in a league of his own in the final, moving early to win the race by 0.763 seconds. Kenny, whose wife Laura has also tasted gold at Tokyo 2020 to add to her four golds from previous Games, won his first-ever gold medal at Beijing 2008 with a victory in the team sprint. He has gone on to amass a further six more golds in a spectacular Olympic career.
Malaysia's Mohd Azizulhasni Awang - bronze medallist in Rio - took an impressive silver, with Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands winning bronze.
Kenny was in seventh heaven with his latest Olympic victory, saying, as per Olympics.com: "It is a bit of shock I think, I really wanted to cross the finish line. Obviously, I am absolutely buzzing. Going into the final I didn't expect anything other than a five, really. I was hoping to kind of get stuck in, and hopefully come away with some silverware. To win at the corner on my own like that is absolutely buzzing."
And when asked about winning a historic seventh gold medal, the cyclist pointed to the hard years of training that go into becoming an Olympic champion.
"They are all special, they are all different, and they are all really hard to get. In a four or five-year gap, you look back, and it just seems so easy in your memory. You watch videos and it looks so easy, you forget the hard work that goes into it. I fought really hard for them all."