When the double Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald began cycling competitively, her ambitions were modest.
“You meet kids that want to be world champion, and kids that want to be Olympic champion,” said Archibald, 31. “But I think the other bucket, which is the one that I fell into, is you want to be able to keep up with your big brother.”
For Archibald that meant pursuing greatness in swimming and cycling — the two sports her brother chose. She remembers bleak winter mornings riding to swimming training at 5am.
Cycling was also a way to maintain a social life in the Glasgow suburbs. Her early memories on two wheels are all about gaining her own freedom, travelling to see her friends in town.
She quit swimming at around 15 as she was struggling to balance the commitment with an increasingly busy social life. “There was this disconnect between who I wanted to be and what the sport was letting me be,” she said. “I wanted to hang out with my friends and have my weekends free. Spending seven days a week with your head underwater didn’t really align with that.”
That led her to turn the sport that had given her freedom into a career, after realising that her active lifestyle was now missing a competitive edge.
“I was going on all these bike rides with my dad and other middle-aged men and a family friend said, ‘Should you not really be riding bikes with people your own size?’, and sent me some information for this talent ID programme with the Scottish Institute of Sport.” It was then that she discovered track cycling and her talent on two wheels was put to best use.
She won bronze aged 20 in the points race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow — an achievement she describes as a “springboard” for later accomplishments, which included Olympic golds in the team pursuit at Rio in 2016 and in the Madison with Laura Kenny at Tokyo in 2021.
With her bronze in 2014 …
RICHARD PELHAM FOR NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS
… and celebrating Olympic gold with Kenny in Tokyo
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Now, 11 years on from her home games, having secured world records and world championship titles, she and the legendary crop of British cyclists she competed with have successfully inspired the next generation. In a return to her roots, Archibald will compete at another home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.
A handful of her contemporaries, including Kenny, have already retired. However, after missing the Paris Olympics due to a freak injury sustained at home, Archibald still has hopes of competing in Los Angeles in 2028 even as her demanding career is starting to take its toll.
“I’ve really pushed against friends that all roll out the same line of, ‘You hit 30 and you start to feel it, don’t you?’ … I’d go, ‘Listen, I’ve had pain since I was 14’. My body’s been in pain for ever. This isn’t new.
“It feels like it would be a waste not to use all this knowledge that I have. I’ve become an expert in this thing. When your body breaks down, how else do I use that expertise? I could go into coaching and I really love chatting to the youngsters about racing, or to my team-mates about racing and about training plans and different approaches, but I just don’t imagine that that’s what my future is like.”
Another up-and-coming cyclist has mirrored both Archibald’s success and her journey into the sport. Erin Boothman, 18, a fellow Glaswegian, is already a junior world champion. Speaking from a Manchester training camp in mid-December also attended by Archibald, Boothman revealed how the older cyclist had inspired her: “I think [Archibald] has a really good outlook on training. In every training session … she always wants to be criticised. She’s just always trying to better herself, even though she is already one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world.”
Boothman has also spent time training in Spain in December
Echoing Archibald’s own route into the sport, Boothman said cycling was “such an escape” not just when she was younger “but also now … you get that little rush of happy endorphins because you’re out in the countryside, or you’re out riding your bike, and no one is really around you”.
Boothman is waiting to hear whether she will be competing alongside Archibald in Glasgow next year. She believes the next Olympics may arrive too soon for her to represent Team GB in LA.
Archibald missed the last Olympics after a freak incident in her garden led to a double leg break and ligament damage. She swiftly returned in time to clinch gold in the team pursuit at the world championships in October, weeks after the Paris Games, but struggled mentally in the aftermath of what should have felt like a monumental victory.
“I’m so, so grateful that I had the worlds as a goal. But it was, I guess, a bit of a crutch for coping with the disappointment of missing Paris,” she said. “For everybody that made it to the Games, those world championships were not as important to them as they were to me. I really struggled quite a bit after that.”
For both Archibald and Boothman, cycling has been nothing short of life-changing. They have endeavoured to bring its positive impact to others, too. That belief in the power of cycling is why both women support World Bicycle Relief, one of the charities backed by The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal this year. The charity distributes bikes around the globe to rural communities to help increase accessibility to education and economic opportunities, and allowing families easier access to food and healthcare.
Archibald said: “There’s this brilliance to the fact that it’s just an expansion of opportunity on two wheels.”
This year, Boothman signed her first professional deal with the road team Liv AlUla Jayco. Liv is the sister brand of Giant, the manufacturer of the Buffalo bike used by the World Bicycle Relief. It has delivered 750,000 around the world.
The Buffalo is a durable multi-terrain vehicle built for withstanding conditions of countries such as Kenya and Colombia, with a bike rack capable of carrying 100kg.
Watch to find out more about the charity’s work
Back in Glasgow, Archibald has seen the importance of making cycling safe for children. In March she took part in the Shawlands Bike Bus, where adults create a so-called “human bike lane” to protect children riding to school. Adults ride on the outside to protect the pupils from traffic while they cycle with friends in the middle of the road.
“It was the most heartwarming thing,” Archibald said. “They’re just so happy flying around, feeling safe as anything.”
Find out more about the Christmas appeal and donate by calling 0151 286 1594 or by clicking the button below: