Triple Olympic medallist and British track legend Katie Archibald announces retirement

Archibald was a member of several successful team pursuit squads, winning the Olympic title in 2016 (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

The Scot also won the world title in 2023, alongside Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

The 32-year-old began training as a nursing student in September last year, a vocation she has “fallen completely in love with”, and said the idea of embarking on an entirely new career smoothed the path to retirement from cycling.

She added: “I really want to stress that the nursing training isn’t forcing me into retirement. 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.

“It feels so special being someone people can trust when they need help. Part of that trust, of course, is knowing that nothing leaves the room unless they choose to share it. For that reason, I’m keen to step back from what little part of the public eye I’m in.”

Archibald and Kenny won the first-ever Olympic women's Madison (Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)

Archibald was part of a golden generation for British track cycling including Laura Kenny, Dani Rowe and Elinor Barker; she won the European team pursuit title alongside the trio on her senior competitive debut.

The team pursuit would continue to be a hugely successful event for her. She won Olympic gold in the discipline in Rio 2016 and silver in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, where she also won the inaugural women’s Madison Olympic event with Kenny.

Archibald was instrumental in pushing for a women’s Madison to be added to the world and Olympic programmes, which she cites as one of her proudest achievements.

In her usual self-effacing style, she said: “I’m not hoping for a grand legacy, but I hope I’ve made an impact on the individuals I’ve worked with. I’m also the reason you say ‘P1’ instead of ‘man 1’ if you’re a woman who rides team pursuit for the GBCT, I guess that’s a bit of legacy.”

(SWpix.com)

In total she has won one Olympic, three world and eight European team pursuit titles; one Olympic gold, two world and two European titles in the Madison; four European and one Commonwealth Games individual pursuit titles; two world and four European titles in the omnium individual event, and three more individual continental titles in the points, elimination and scratch races.

She is also a 12-time national champion across the various endurance disciplines and three overall endurance titles in the now-defunct UCI Track Champions League.

Archibald’s starry career has been all the more remarkable for the setbacks and personal tragedies she has overcome. In 2022 she lost her partner, fellow cyclist Rab Ward, to a cardiac arrest, and was unable to save his life as he lay beside her.

Her most recent world title came in the Madison alongside Maddie Leech in 2025 (Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

Having thrown herself back into training she then suffered a freak injury shortly before the Paris Olympics, breaking two bones and tearing ligaments in a fall which ruled her out of a third Games. However she made a rapid recovery and returned to competition four months later, leading the British team pursuit squad to gold at the World Championships, defending their 2023 title by a vast margin.

Her most recent results were another gold in the team pursuit and second in the Madison, alongside Anna Morris, at February’s European Championships in Turkey.

Archibald told The Independent and other media in October last year: “I would say I’m essentially obsessed with greatness in this niche sport”. She retires having certainly achieved that.