Cyclists Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny attending The National Lottery's Team GB homecoming event at Hilton London Wembley
(Picture: Getty Images for The National Lottery)Olympic athletes have rallied behind Dame Laura Kenny after she revealed she suffered a miscarriage in November last year.
The five-time Olympic champion returned to cycling this week as part of the British team that won silver in the women’s pursuit at the Nations Cup in Glasgow.
But on Friday she revealed the personal losses she had to overcome in order to compete in the tournament.
Dame Laura, 29, said she miscarried at nine weeks in November and then just two months later had emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy and was forced to have one of her fallopian tubes removed.
She has received a flood of support from her fellow athletes in response to the Instagram post.
Olympic champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill wrote: “I’ve been thinking about you these past few weeks. You are so strong and have the best support in Jason and Albie.”
Former racing cyclist Becky James, who won two silver medals at the Rio Olymics in 2016, added: “Sending you loads of love Lau, sorry to hear everything you’ve been through xxx.”
In an emotional post on Instagram, Dame Laura said: “Since the Olympics we haven’t had much luck and it’s been the hardest few months I’ve ever had to go through.
“Jason and I fell pregnant immediately after the Games and we were absolutely chuffed to bits. But unfortunately in November when commentating at the track champions league I miscarried our baby at nine weeks. I’ve never felt so lost and sad. It felt like a part of me had been torn away.
“I grabbed for my safety blanket, bike riding! I found myself back in my happy place training again. I then caught Covid in mid-January and found myself feeling really very unwell.
“I didn’t have typical Covid symptoms and I just felt I needed to go to hospital. A day later I found myself in A&E being rushed to theatre because I was having an ectopic pregnancy. Scared doesn’t even come close. I lost a fallopian tube that day.”
Dame Laura added: “I’ve always known I was tough, but sometimes life pushes you to an unbearable limit. If it wasn’t for Jason and Albie getting me through the day to day I’d have been broken.
“But here I am, with the support of my family, friends and team-mates, on the podium of a Nations Cup.”
An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilised egg implants itself outside the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.
In a separate Instagram story, Dame Laura said: ‘It feels "brave" talking about miscarriage and baby loss. But it shouldn’t be.
“Jason and I felt lonely going through it and like we had taken the happiness away from our families by not telling them. They didn’t get the joy of thinking another baby was on the way, only the sad. Miscarriage is a lot more common than people realise which is why we have decided to share our heartbreak, to help support others.”
Dame Laura is Britain’s most decorated female Olympian with five Olympic gold medals, including one in the women’s madison with Katie Archibald at the velodrome in Tokyo, and one silver, while her husband has seven gold and two silver medals.
The couple, who got married in September 2016, became the first husband and wife ever to be made knight and dame in the same honours list at the beginning of this year.
