Kirsti Lay (Canadian Press photo)

By Charles Lefebvre

Retirement

Kirsti Lay announces retirement from competitive cycling

Sep 17, 2019 | 5:18 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB —Cyclist Kirsti Lay is calling it a career.

The 31-year-old, who was born in Medicine Hat, made the announcement on Twitter on Monday.

“I had a baby in June, and he’s three months now, and I just really fallen in love with being at home and being a mom,” she said over the phone from Calgary. “Being an Olympic year, it would be quite a lot of time on the road, probably three or four months away. I think you don’t realize how much having a baby impacts you until you have one. I know it sounds cliche to say, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice that time away, and even just cart him around and have my hubby miss out on all the stages he was going to go through in his first year.

“It was really just, my heart wasn’t entirely in it anymore. To go to the Olympics and challenge for a medal, you have to be fully, fully committed to it.”

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Lay, along with Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Glaesser and Georgia Simmerling defeated New Zealand for the bronze medal in Team Pursuit in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Lay began her athletic career as a long track speed skater, but after injuries, switch to cycling at the age of 24. During her career, she won gold in Team Pursuit at the 2015 Pan-Am Games, and won a bronze and silver medal at the UCI World Championships in 2015 and 2016, respectively, in addition to the Olympic medal.

She calls the Pan Am Games one of the highlights of her career, noting it was the first time her family was able to see her compete in track cycling.

“I just have shivers thinking about it, that I could do that with my family and they could be a part of it,” she said.

Lay is thankful for the help from her coaches, teammates and the cycling community for helping her find success in the sport.

She adds she is also impressed to see the rate of participation growth in athletics, especially for those who grew up in smaller communities.

“There’s so much opportunity out there for sport right now,” she said. “It allows you to see so much of the world. It’s not just about results, it’s about all of the life lessons that you get through sport, and how you can carry it through the next chapter of your life.”

Lay says she eventually wants to be involved with cycling at the grassroots level in the future, helping female riders jump from the amateur ranks to the professional ranks.

-With files from The Canadian Press