British cyclist Dame Laura Kenny has confirmed her participation in the Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images

Despite facing personal difficulties in recent months, Britain's most successful female Olympic athlete Dame Laura Kenny is excited at the prospect of competing at a home Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this year.

The 30-year-old claimed the team pursuit and the omnium at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics as well as madison gold and team pursuit silver at Tokyo 2020 to take her Olympic medal tally to six. 

Dame Laura is now setting her sights on the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to take place in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.

Track cycling competition is due to take place at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London and Dame Laura told insidethegames she is looking forward to competing once again on a track that brings her so many good memories from the 2012 Olympics. 

"I was quite pleased that they said we were going to have it here and not Derby, because obviously Derby would be the obvious as it is the closest track to Birmingham," she said. 

"I'm really glad that we're going to come back here and I'll have a home ground again."

Lee Valley VeloPark is set to become the first venue to host Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games competitions in the same sport, when it stages track cycling events at Birmingham 2022.

After suffering a miscarriage in November last year and having her fallopian tubes removed in January, Dame Laura has gone through many challenges but remains confident that she will achieve success at the Games. 

"To be honest, I didn't have a brilliant start to this year," Dame Laura told insidethegames. 

"But I also raced in Glasgow well two weeks ago now and I felt pretty good there. 

"We're on an upward path now rather than just stuck on a stay or just kind of doing my day to day.

"I feel like I'm actually getting better again now."



Dame Laura was part of the British team that won silver in the women’s pursuit at the International Cycling Union Track Cycling Nations Cup, held in Glasgow last month.

In addition to the upcoming Commonwealth Games, Dame Laura is also aiming to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

"The Commonwealth Games is my short-term goal and it's pretty close now and it's going to come around a lot faster than I guess anyone was expecting," she said.

"And then we actually have the three races back to back.  

"We go to the Commonwealth Games and then to the Europeans and then to the Worlds. 

"So within about three months of each other and and then we will reset and then we're within the two years to the next Olympics in Paris."

At the age of just 20, Dame Laura set a world record time of three minutes 14.051 seconds in the women's team pursuit alongside Dani King and Joanna Rowsell at London 2012, a performance that thrust her into the public spotlight. 

"I never actually thought I would go to London 2012," Dame Laura told insidethegames. 

"So to be able to do it at the home Olympics, which was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my whole life, it was just one of the best experiences I could ever have imagined.

 "And then after that, obviously, bought a whole lot of expectation and I became this role model that I never expected to be. 

"So Rio came around, I thought, well, how on Earth am I going to do this again?

"Like, I've already lived my dream. 

"How am I going to now keep this dream alive.

"I beat any expectation that I've ever put myself. 

"I never thought that I would go to multiple Games and be a multiple gold medallist and then obviously another four years later I win another one at Tokyo."