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British track cyclist and four-time Olympic medalist Jack Carlin has announced his retirement at the age of 28.
Carlin won a silver and a bronze medal in both Tokyo and Paris olympicsWith three silver medals at the World Championships in 2018 and 2019, and is a former under-23 team sprint world champion.
In total Carlin achieved 19 international podium results in his ten-year senior career, with his four Olympic medals placing him third on the all-time list of Scottish male Olympians – behind only the great Sir chris hoy and swimmer duncan scott Take more.
“It’s been a long process, because it took me a while to find that fire and the desire to go again for another four years,” he said. Independent and other media outlets before the announcement.
“I got myself back into fit shape for a physical fight [after Paris] But the motivation to give his all never returned. Looking at my career, you can win or lose things by thousandths of a second, and if I can’t give my 100% – which I don’t think I have to give – then I don’t think it’s worth doing. I feel like I’m doing myself, the people around me, and Jersey a disservice.”
After Paris, Carlin traveled with his partner Christy to South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The decision was taken over time, but one particular moment stood out that crystallized his way of thinking. “I was doing my thing at the gym, and I was cleaning, that thing slipped out of my hand, it fell down and I just looked at it and said, ‘I don’t need to do that right now!’ I don’t think I lost weight, I just walked away and never stepped foot in that gym again. That’s when the complications began to change, because old Jack wouldn’t have done it.
“I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t doing it for the right reasons and I wasn’t doing it for myself. And I’m satisfied, really happy with my career. I’ve achieved a lot, and I thought, when I don’t have anything else to give my 100%, what else is there to pursue?”
Scott initially took up cycling, taking up mountain biking and road cycling in his teens to recover from breaking his ankles playing football. He said, “I realized I was not very good in the wet and cold, which is not ideal for Scotland, and not very good on the hills either.” But the 2012 Olympics in London – when compatriot Hoy, whom he described as an “inspirational” person, won two golds – inspired him to turn to the track.
His first major result came in 2016, when he won the under-23 team sprint world title with Joe Trueman and Ryan Owens, with the trio taking two gold medals at the elite-level Track Cycling World Cup rounds in Apeldoorn and Glasgow. His first senior international medal came in the same discipline, a silver medal at the European Championships in the same year.
“One of my best memories – in terms of things that aren’t big races – was my first senior World Cup, in Glasgow in 2016, the first time I competed for GB at an elite level in a World Cup,” he said. “It was me and two of my boys I came with from the academy. It was almost like a homecoming moment; at the Commonwealth in 2014 I was sitting on the sidelines and watching the guys I was training with, and then it was my turn and we won, and it was a surreal experience.”
In 2018 the Paisley native won silver medals at the World Championships in both the sprint and team sprint, along with another sprint silver. Commonwealth Games and a European bronze medal in the keirin the following year.
She won silver in the team sprint and bronze in the individual sprint on her Olympic debut in Tokyo, matching those exact results in Paris three years later – despite suffering an ankle injury 12 weeks before the start of the Games. He also had a distinct chance of a medal in the keirin in Paris, before a crash late in the final took him out of the running.
Carlin is also a six-time European Championships medalist in the sprint and keirin, and a three-time Commonwealth Games medalist. He will miss the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow for the first time since the 2014 edition, which propelled him to success on the track.
“The biggest temptation was to represent Scotland in domestic games, but I’m not 100% into it now – if I want the honor of putting that jersey on my back, whether it’s Scotland or GB, I want to make sure I give it everything I can,” he explained. In doing so he follows in the footsteps of Hoy, who hung up his wheels a year before the 2014 edition, and who gave Carlin some advice before making his decision.
Carlin has been one of the most consistent sprinters in the world over the past few years, but it was unfortunate that he was competing at the same time with his new teammate Matthew Richardson – who had represented Australia until after the Paris Olympics – and one of the best sprinters of all time, 16-time world champion Harry Lovresen of the Netherlands.
Others might be bitter about leaving without that big gold, but Carlin has no regrets. “I gave the program 100% and I put my life into it, and did my best,” he said. “There are not many people with whom I have worked shoulder to shoulder [Lavreysen] To be in the same picture on a regular basis and even in the same picture, sharing the podium – he is one of the best, if not the best, ever to do it. He’s almost the Chris of the Chris era, untouchable. So I won’t wake up in a cold sweat! I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved.
“If I told 18-year-old Jack that you were going to be carrying four Olympic medals around your neck in ten years, I would have cut your hands off for it.”
There may be a return to GBCT in a coaching capacity at a later date, although for now he intends to “spread his wings” and explore what the future might hold.
“Hopefully I’ve inspired someone like me over the years to pick up a bike and ride it – whether it’s to the level I’ve reached, or just going out and riding my bike, that’s what’s important,” he said.
All elite sports require sacrifice, and for Carlin’s family a sport as full of state-of-the-art equipment as track cycling requires a few more than other sports. “When I was a kid I sold my Xbox for rollers, my parents sold one of the cars for a set of wheels so I could compete. What my parents gave me was their time and a kind of unwavering belief, even when I didn’t have it.
“If I can inspire a kid from a similar background to mine to really pay it forward, and inspire others to help them achieve what they want to achieve the way I was helped, that would be huge.”