{"id":444685,"date":"2026-02-25T11:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444685\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:26:17","slug":"its-been-a-whirlwind-olympic-champion-returns-at-british-track-championships-after-15-months-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444685\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s been a whirlwind’ \u2013 Olympic champion returns at British Track Championships after 15 months out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prior to Sunday, Olympic team sprint gold medallist Katy Marchant<\/a>\u2019s last track race ended in her lying among the fans, her arm broken in two places, having crashed over the fence at London\u2019s Lee Valley Velodrome<\/a>. Now, 15 months and another child later, she\u2019s back chasing the Olympic dream again.<\/p>\n

Marchant returned to competition on the final day of the British Track Championships<\/a> last week, where she raced in the individual sprint. The 33-year-old was ultimately knocked out in the quarterfinals, but the result mattered little; she came off the track smiling, walked to her paddock, and sat with her two sons, Arthur and Walter, the latter she gave birth to just six months before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m really happy to be back racing \u2013 earlier than expected, I think, but things have been going really well and relatively smoothly,\u201d Marchant told Cycling Weekly.<\/p>\n

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The sprinter\u2019s previous last race came in late 2024 at the UCI Track Champions League (TCL). The event ended up being abandoned so Marchant could receive urgent medical care, after crashing into the front row at the top of the banking<\/a> in the keirin final. She now races with mementos of the incident: a dark purple scar down her right forearm, and small metal plates holding the bones together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a whirlwind. It was just a bike race and it was just a freak accident. It was a bit unlucky on my part: wrong place, wrong time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

How much of the crash does she remember? \u201cI totally remember all of it,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew what was going on. I could see the fence coming, but I didn\u2019t quite anticipate going over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been really lucky in the last 12 years I\u2019ve done this; I\u2019ve never really had many accidents, [only] a couple of slip and slides. It was a little bit unfortunate for the Track Champs to end like that, especially because it was the last race of what had been an incredible year in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marchant won her first Olympic title that summer with a world-record ride<\/a> in the team sprint alongside Emma Finucane<\/a> and Sophie Capewell<\/a>. The trio then went on to win gold at the UCI Track World Championships two months later<\/a>. Come Christmas, however, and Marchant was sidelined with a broken radius and ulna, as well as two broken fingers.<\/p>\n

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\"Katy\n<\/p>\n

The European sprint champion Emma Finucane pins Marchant’s numbers on ahead of her racing return. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Olly Hassell\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

Recovering from injury was just one part of Marchant\u2019s year off racing. After having her first child, Arthur, in 2022, and coming back \u201cbetter than ever\u201d, she and her husband Rob added another son, Walter, to their family last August.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrazy to think I grew and birthed a human only six months ago,\u201d Marchant wrote on Instagram following her racing return on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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She told Cycling Weekly that being a mother of two has been \u201cfull-on, [I\u2019m] not going to lie \u2013 but it\u2019s been great.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically it\u2019s harder to have two children than it is to have one, and obviously my body has taken a bit of a hit from having another baby, but I\u2019ve recovered really well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m back training and I feel great. I\u2019m not where I need to be \u2013 I\u2019m a million miles away from where I was when I left the sport in 2024 after the TCL \u2013 but I feel more confident this time. When I had Arthur [in 2022], there were days were I was like, \u2018Am I flogging a dead horse?\u2019 Whereas this time I have more confidence. I know that the bad days will probably make the good days worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those good days, she hopes, will come in major competitions this year. Marchant is eyeing a spot in Team England for July\u2019s Commonwealth Games. She also wants to be part of the Great Britain squad at the World Championships in October, with a longer term goal of defending her Olympic title in LA in 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to eke out every last bit that I can. It\u2019d be really nice to just maybe have one last dance at the Olympics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could retire tomorrow with the most amazing career and more than I could have ever dreamed of, but I never want to retire and say, \u2018What if?\u2019 I want to push every boundary that I can. The girls have got a great team going on, and I really want to be in that team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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