In a major blow for Great Britain’s women’s sprint medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics, the country’s leading sprinter Becky James, a double silver medallist in Rio and former double world champion at the sprint and keirin, announced her retirement on Thursday at only 25 years of age. A year out from the Commonwealth Games, her absence will also be strongly felt by the whole of Welsh sport.
James had taken an extended break after the Rio Games last year to decide her future. The Guardian understands her decision was based around the fact she has had to make multiple comebacks from illness and injury during her career, and that she felt there were no guarantees a further push for Olympic glory would be met with success.
“I have given cycling 100% and know how much commitment it takes to make it to the highest level in elite sport,” James said in a statement. “The pressure of competing at the top can be mentally and physically draining but the rewards have been incredible and I have absolutely no regrets. I now want to enjoy my life without the strict training regime, while at the same time continuing to lead a healthy lifestyle both in body and mind.”
James also announced she plans to pursue her passion for baking as a business, and that she intends to remain in cycling as a member of the Abergavenny Road Club.
Having started racing seriously as an under-16 in 2007 – when she won the junior women’s national championship at 500m – James can reflect on a career which has lasted for a decade, putting another perspective on her decision to hang up her wheels with, most probably, her best years yet to come. Given that she was very much a protege of the former technical director Shane Sutton, who quit in controversial circumstances in April 2016, her retirement has to be seen as part of the turmoil that has followed his departure.
In an era when cyclists begin taking their sport seriously at an ever-younger age, she is not the only Team GB member to quit in her twenties. In March this year, the team pursuit mainstay Joanna Rowsell Shand announced her retirement, while the omnium and team pursuit star Laura Kenny is currently on an extended break to have her first child.
James’s retirement will leave a void in British women’s sprinting, with the Rio bronze medallist Katy Marchant most likely to step into her shoes. Post Rio, the cycling squad is undergoing a wider process of transition following the crises of last year, with a new performance director in Stephen Park and uncertainty over the intentions of the multiple men’s sprint medallist Jason Kenny.
Tall and rangy, with an aggressive way of crouching over her bike, James was seen at her very best on only two occasions. The first was the world championships in Minsk in 2013, where she achieved her breakthrough to win gold medals in the sprint and keirin, plus bronze in the 500m time trial and team sprint.
Aged only 21, she was a model of composure and tactical mastery in the sprint final against the far more experienced Kristina Vogel of Germany, while the keirin final saw courage, as she fought the pain that had accumulated during five days of racing to snatch gold with a late surge.
James had already overcome glandular fever and an appendectomy to make it to her best in Minsk – and had to deal with the disappointment of being overlooked for the London Olympics in 2012 – but the health issues that probably impacted the most on her decision to retire came in 2014 and 2015.
After she took bronze medals in the keirin and team sprint at the world championships in Colombia in February 2014, James struggled with a serious knee injury which eventually required rehab from October 2014 until February 2015. She also endured a cervical cancer scare and a shoulder injury which required keyhole surgery.
Given that background, her comeback for Rio was a delicate business, so much so that she only competed in the keirin in the world championships in London that spring. Given all that had gone before, it was a triumph that she managed a brace of silver medals in Rio, with a characteristic late surge in the keirin to finish close behind Elis Ligtlee of Holland, before going down 2-0 in the sprint final to Vogel.
Those three days of racing promised much for Tokyo but there is further context that helps explain James’s decision to leave early. Along with her continual fights against injury and illness, James – who is in a long-term relationship with the Wales rugby player George North – has been affected by a serious cycling accident involving her mother. That background points to what seems like a level-headed decision by a rare breed: an athlete of exceptional talent able to put her sport into personal and familial perspective.