Olympic track cycling champion Shanne Braspennincx retires with immediate effect

Track cyclist Shanne Braspennincx has retired from her sport with immediate effect. The 32-year-old Olympic champion in the keirin event said on Thursday that she can no longer muster the motivation, and that the fun is gone, national cycling association KNWU announced.

Braspennincx captured gold at the Olympics during the games in Tokyo in 2021. "I wanted to get the most out of my career, and on that day, everything came together. I am very proud of that," she said to NOS. The track cyclist called the gold in the keirin "the crowning glory of her career."

The track cyclist was absent at the European Championships in Apeldoorn. She was not fit enough to participate. Braspennincx said she was given the time and space from KNWU over the last few months to think about her career.

"After my gold medal in Tokyo, there wasn't much time for reflection," she says at the cycling association. "The European Championships, World Cup, and the Track Champions League were coming up right after the Games. I was also working on obtaining my master's degree in Management Sciences, and I also bought and renovated a house together with Jeffrey," she said about her partner, fellow Olympic track cycling champion Jeffrey Hoogland. "I rode fast times in training and competitions but didn't enjoy it as much."

Braspennincx broke through on the international stage in 2014 with bronze at the European Champions in the keirin and the team sprint. She took silver in the keirin at the Track Cycling World Championships in 2015. In the same year, she suffered a heart attack during a training camp in the United States and required surgery. She was given permission to continue her career six months later. That resulted in Olympic gold and two European titles at the team sprint and sprint in 2021.

She does not yet have concrete plans for the future. "I don't know what I am going to do now. But first, I want to close this door before I start a new chapter. I will let everything come at me for a while."

Technical director Wilbert Broekhuizen of the KNWU thanked Braspennincx for the great years of high-level sport "with the absolute highlight being the gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo."