Tokyo 2020 - Jason Kenny can win THREE Olympic gold medals in Paris, claims Bradley Wiggins
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Updated 05/08/2021 at 11:06 GMT
Wiggins shares the status of Britain's most decorated Olympian with Kenny and will not write his former team-mate off, saying he cannot be discounted until he hangs his bike off. Kenny's lost his team sprint and individual sprint titles - but still has the keirin to go. You want it? We have it. Stream every Olympic event live on discovery+.
'I wouldn't put it past Kenny winning all three golds back in Paris' - Wiggins
Bradley Wiggins is backing Jason Kenny to go to the Paris 2024 Olympics and win all three sprint titles, rejecting the suggestion his track cycling career might be coming to a close.
They share the status of Britain's most decorated Olympian, after Kenny won team sprint silver to claim his eighth medal. But by doing so the 33-year-old relinquished his title, and was unable to progress to the medal races in the individual sprint on Thursday.
The keirin is still to come and Kenny's experience and tactical nous is expected to make a significant impact against the likes of Dutch pair Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen. Kenny is almost a decade over than some of his rivals, but Wiggins will not count him out.
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"He has dominated Olympic track cycling at every Olympiad. He’s not always produced the good in between in those interim years at World Championships and things like that, but he shines at Olympic Games," said Wiggins, who is following the action from the velodrome for Eurosport.
"This is a very odd Olympic Games because it’s come one year later than expected.
The moment that man steps off the bike and retires and hangs his bicycle up is the day we’ll write him off. Very much like Mark Cavendish, they have a mindset and they have a very, very unique sporting ability to focus on achievements and goals of this nature, of this stature.
"Jason isn’t done yet, he’s got a day off tomorrow and he’s defending his keirin title.
"I wouldn’t put it past him to win that race, and I wouldn’t put it past him to come back in three years time and win all three gold medals back, that’s the quality of the athlete."
Kenny agrees he is not at his best at the moment, but hopes he can retain his keirin title in a competition which starts on Saturday. In the individual sprint, he failed to make the races to determine the medals and conserved energy in the race for minor places, giving up midway through his final lap to finish eighth overall - having held the title since London 2012.
"I’ve not got some kind of mad ego that can’t accept I’m going to be the best in the world every day of the week," he told Eurosport.
I’m not where I want to be, I’m not as competitive as I want to be, but just have to accept it. Just been scrapping, trying to get as far as I can in the race in the hope of getting some silverware at the end of it.
"They're making it look easier and easier so, that respect is diminishing rapidly," Kenny said of the Dutch team, after it was suggested by Wiggins that he is still revered by them. "We scrapped and battled for my place in the squad and to qualify the spot even, we nicked this spot off another nation so you’re kind of determined to scrap it all the way to the death really, which is what I did, that’s just where I am physically at the minute.
"Day off tomorrow, hopefully they’ll knock 10 bells out of each other in the sprint finals and give us a chance in the keirin."
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