Katy Marchant

Katy Marchant
MBE
	Marchant in 2024
Personal information
Full name	Katy Marchant
Born	30 January 1993; Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Height	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Team information
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Medal record
Women's track cycling
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games
World Championships
European Championships
Representing England
Commonwealth Games

Katy Marchant (born 30 January 1993) is a British track cyclist who specialises in the keirin, sprint, team sprint and track time trial disciplines. She is an Olympic and world champion in the team sprint, and a European champion in the 500 m time trial.

Marchant began her sporting career as a heptathlete and represented Great Britain at the 2012 World Junior Championships. She switched to cycling in 2013, and became European under-23 champion in the keirin in 2015. She won four senior national titles in 2015, and the following year, at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won a bronze medal in the sprint. In 2018, she won a bronze medal in the team sprint at the Commonwealth Games and won her first World Cup gold medal in 2019 in the keirin. In 2024, she became European champion in the 500 m time trial, and Olympic and world champion in the team sprint.

Early life and athletics career

Katy Marchant was born on 30 January 1993 in Leeds, England.^[1] She was educated at Brigshaw High School,^[2] and has a sister.^[3] Marchant began her sporting life as a heptathlete, and represented Great Britain in that event at the 2012 World Junior Championships. The switchover to cycling was instigated by her former coach, Toni Minichiello (best known for coaching Jessica Ennis), who suggested the move having seen the results of her power output on a Wattbike test. Marchant had previously only cycled as a leisure activity, and had no experience of track cycling. After a six-week trial period, she switched to track cycling full-time.^[4]^[5]

Career

Marchant became a member of British Cycling's Olympic Academy in April 2013, and graduated to the Olympic Development Programme in November 2013.^[6] In July 2014, she won a bronze medal in the team sprint with Rosie Blount at the under-23 European Championships, and she also secured a further bronze medal in the keirin.^[7]^[8] In September, at the 2014 National Championships, Marchant won four medals: two silver and two bronze. In the sprint, she was defeated by Jessica Varnish in the final,^[9]^[10] and she finished runner-up again in the team sprint alongside Victoria Williamson.^[11] She also finished third in both the 500 m time trial and the keirin.^[12]^[13]

In July 2015, she became European under-23 champion in the keirin. Earlier in the competition, she and teammate Williamson claimed the silver medal in the team sprint.^[14] In September, she won four national titles at the 2015 British National Track Championships: the sprint, 500m time trial, keirin and the team sprint. In the sprint, she overcame Becky James in the final to seal her first senior national title.^[15]^[16]

Marchant and Varnish won a silver medal in the team sprint at the 2015-16 World Cup event in Hong Kong.^[17] The pair then finished fifth at the 2016 World Championships, missing out on a place in the team sprint at the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[18]^[19] At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won a bronze medal in the sprint. Marchant was defeated by Kristina Vogel in the semi-finals but she then overcame Elis Ligtlee in the bronze-medal match.^[20] One month after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, Marchant travelled to Izu to attend the Japan Keirin School to try and improve her skills in the discipline.^[21]

In the 2017-18 World Cup, Marchant secured a silver medal in the keirin at the event in Milton, Ontario.^[22] This marked her first ever individual medal in a World Cup competition.^[23] In January 2018, at the 2018 British National Track Championships, she won the 500 m time trial and sprint titles.^[24]^[25] In April, she teamed-up with Lauren Bate to win a bronze medal in the team sprint at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.^[26] During the 2018-19 World Cup, Marchant won a silver medal in the keirin at the meeting in Cambridge, New Zealand.^[27] She finished first in the keirin at the 2019-20 World Cup meeting in Glasgow after beating Emma Hinze in a photo finish.^[28]

Marchant was chosen to be part of Great Britain's cycling squad for the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.^[29] In the quarter-finals of the keirin, she was involved in a crash that ended her participation in the event. Marchant reflected: "I think that's just bike racing - wrong place, wrong time."^[30]^[31] In the sprint, she was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Lee Wai Sze.^[32] In April 2022, she revealed that she was expecting her first child. She stated that she would return to racing, explaining: "On the plane back [from Tokyo] I felt I was not quite finished, I still had things I wanted to do, and once I found out I was pregnant, something else came over me and I thought, ‘I’m definitely not done’. I love a challenge and I’d really like to give this a go."^[33]

Marchant won a silver medal alongside Emma Finucane and Lauren Bell in the team sprint at the 2023 European Championships in Grenchen. The trio lost to Germany in the final.^[34] At the 2023 Track Nations Cup in Milton, Marchant won a bronze medal in the keirin. She was promoted to third, after Lauriane Genest, who originally crossed the line in second place was relegated due to a rules infraction.^[35] She was a member of Team Inspired who won the national team sprint title at the 2023 British Cycling National Track Championships. She also finished runner-up in the keirin to Finucane.^[36]

At the 2024 UEC European Track Championships in Apeldoorn, Marchant became the first British woman to become European champion in the 500 m time trial. She finished 0.037 seconds clear of Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé.^[37] She also won a silver medal in the team sprint alongside Finucane and Sophie Capewell.^[38] In the 2024 Track Nations Cup, she won a gold medal in the team sprint (with Finucane and Capewell) and a silver medal in the keirin at the meeting in Adelaide.^[39]^[40] At the next leg of the series in Hong Kong, Marchant, Finucane and Capewell again finished first in the team sprint to secure back-to-back wins. Prior to these victories, no British women's sprint team had won an international gold medal since 2012.^[41]

At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Marchant, again riding with Capewell and Finucane, won the gold medal in the women’s team sprint. The trio broke the world record three times during the event, ultimately setting the new record at 45.186 seconds in the final against New Zealand. It was Great Britain's first ever medal in the event.^[42]^[43] She described their success as “phenomenal, absolutely incredible”.^[44] In the keirin, she finished just outside of the medal positions in fourth place.^[45]

At the 2024 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark, Marchant, Finucane and Capewell became world champions in the team sprint after defeating the Netherlands in the final. Their success marked Great Britain's first world title in the women's team sprint since 2008.^[46]^[47] She additionally won bronze medals in the 500 m time trial and the keirin.^[48] In December, she was involved in a bad crash during a UCI Track Champions League meeting in London. She collided with Alessa-Catriona Propster and the pair went over barriers and ended up in the crowd; the meeting was subsequently abandoned and Marchant was taken to hospital.^[49] It was later revealed that she had broken her arm and dislocated two fingers.^[50]