'I don't have 100% of me to give to it anymore' – British Olympic medallist retires at 28

Four-time Olympic medallist Jack Carlin has announced his retirement from cycling at the age of 28.

The track sprinter was part of Great Britain’s squad for 10 years, and went to the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games, winning silver in the team sprint and bronze in the individual sprint at both.

Carlin’s decision to retire comes as he feels he’s not willing to “give that 100%” to be competitive for the current Olympic cycle to Los Angeles 2028.

Following the Paris Olympics last summer, he said in a press conference this week: “I took a bit of time away to try and find that fire and urge to go again for another four years… and the motivation never came back to really feel like I could throw myself back into it for another long period of time, to give it my all.

“Looking back at my career, you can win or lose things by thousands of a second, and if I wasn’t going to give that 100%, which I don’t feel I have to give, I don’t think it’s worth doing. I think I’d be doing myself a disservice, the people around me a disservice, and also the jersey a disservice.”

Born in Paisley, on the outskirts of Glasgow, Carlin grew up playing football, but fractured both of his ankles when he was 14. He then got into riding mountain and road bikes, before realising he “wasn’t very good in the wet and cold, which isn’t ideal for Scotland, and I’m not very good up hills, so the second the warmth of the [Sir Chris Hoy] Velodrome opened in 2012, it was a no brainer for me.”

Inspired by the Commonwealth Games in his home city in 2014, the Scot joined the GB senior academy two years later, still a teenager, and has since collected four Olympic medals, six World Championships medals, six European Championships medals, and three Commonwealth Games medals, all either silver or bronze.

His final competitive appearance came in the keirin final of the Paris Olympics last August, in which he crashed and injured his hip.

“I am content and truly happy with my career. It’s been 10 years within a high performance role at [British Cycling], and I’ve achieved so much within that and I’m content with that. I thought at that point, ‘What else is there to chase, when I don’t have 100% of me to give to it anymore?’” he said.

“If I was to look back and say to 18-year-old Jack, ‘Listen, you’re going to walk away in 10 years’ time with four Olympic medals around your neck…’ I think I would have bit your hand off for that.”

It’s remembering his younger self that Carlin begins to imagine the legacy he hopes to leave in the sport.

“I sold my Xbox for rollers when I was a kid. My parents sold one of the cars for a set of wheels so that I could actually compete with others that might have had more money to give to their kids. But what my parents gave me, and what I’ve learned from them, is they gave me a lot of their time, they gave me a kind of unwavering self belief, even when I didn’t have it sometimes,” he said.

“I think if I can inspire a kid from a similar background to me to really try and give it a go, and inspire others to help those people achieve what they want to achieve, the way I got helped, that would be massive.”

The Commonwealth Games return to Glasgow next year. Although the event was once an enticing prospect for Carlin, it is one he has ultimately decided to forego.

“I’m totally hanging up my helmet,” he stressed. “I’m not 100% in it anymore. If I want to represent my country and have that jersey on my back, have the honour of having that jersey on my back, whether that’s Scotland or GB, I want to make sure that I’m giving it everything I can… and I decided I wasn’t ready to do that.”

Carlin’s coach and former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny said the Scot’s retirement leaves a “performance gap” in the GB sprint squad.

“I know all his former team-mates and support staff would join me in wishing him all the best with his future endeavours,” Kenny said, “along with his golf handicap!”