Ask Katie Archibald about life on the comeback trail and it’s fair to say it is a subject the Scots cyclist is more familiar with than most.
The two-time Olympic champion has had to overcome a raft of eye-watering injuries in her high-flying career.
Yet, recent months have brought what is arguably one of her toughest rehab challenges to date. The 30-year-old tripped on a garden step and dislocated her left ankle, fractured her tibia and fibula and ripped two ligaments off the bone.
The timing of this ‘freak’ accident in June could hardly have been worse, with the rider from Milngavie finding herself in a hospital bed only weeks before the Olympics in Paris.
Instead of than for Team GB at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, Archibald was ensconced at the UK Sports Institute Intensive Rehabilitation Unit at Bisham Abbey, Berkshire.
‘The thing that ended up being the biggest comfort was the Games itself and immersing myself as a viewer,’ she says. ‘The fun of watching the racing and this sport you love having its moment in the spotlight.
Katie Archibald is looking to the future after injury troubles and personal heartache
Archibald wins Commonwealth individual pursuit gold at the Gold Coast Games in 2018
Archibald celebrates women’s team pursuit success in Rio 2016 with Rowsell, Barker and Trott
‘On day one, when it was the team pursuit, I was really nervous. I felt a bit sick in my stomach and wasn’t sure how to handle it, but once everything got under way, I was totally engrossed and obsessed like any other fan would be.
‘I was spending my evenings chatting to Joanna Rowsell, who was doing the Eurosport coverage, and my mornings chatting to Laura Kenny, who was doing the BBC coverage. I found it a big escape from the stress because I was finding rehab really hard.’
Fast forward two months and Archibald has every reason to feel buoyant. She has been named in the Great Britain squad that will travel to the 2024 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark next week (begins October 16).
The five-time world gold medallist is set to compete in the team pursuit and madison. The latter event will likely see her pair up with fellow Scot Neah Evans, who has faced her own challenges this year after being diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus in April.
‘Things can definitely still go wrong, but I’ve had the physical feedback now to say I don’t have to embarrass myself if I end up racing at worlds,’ says Archibald. ‘I’ve had enough cues to say: “This is realistic”, so I’m feeling much more positive.’
The flying Scot is excited about getting back on track after an enforced injury lay-off
Then next on her calendar will be the UCI Track Champions League, beginning in Paris on November 23, with subsequent rounds in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands and London.
It is rare in track cycling, says Archibald, to get to race a top international field on back-to-back weekends. ‘I really soak the pleasure of that up and love being able to roll the dice a few different ways,’ she says.
With many sport stars media-trained to respond in trite soundbites, Archibald remains a welcome breath of fresh air. She always gives an honest answer, no matter how tough the question might be.
Her partner Rab Wardell died suddenly in 2022, aged 37, after he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at their Glasgow home. Only two days earlier, he had fulfilled his long-held dream of winning the Scottish MTB XC Championships.
Archibald’s life as she knew it imploded. Two years on, the grief remains undeniably raw. Yet, what is clear is the great comfort Archibald draws from talking about Wardell.
A word she peppers throughout our conversation is ‘fun’. It feels like a nod to Wardell, whose own ethos in cycling was that through all the hard graft, you should never lose the joy.
Archibald with former partner Rab Wardell, who passed away suddenly in 2022
‘It is a way he changed me for sure,’ says Archibald, a smile in her voice. ‘The secret we had was “chill out, have fun”. I grew to value that so much and I still say it in my head all the time.’
Archibald speaks candidly about how the past two years have reframed her outlook. ‘I’m much more reliant on this part of my identity now,’ she says, referring to cycling. ‘There was a point in time where I would say: “Rab loves me” and that would take the stress away.
‘Because you knew there was this part of your life that it had no impact on. Losing that has meant, on occasion, I’ve put too much on what success on the bike means.’
She admits that, until recently, there were no concrete plans for what came next. Now, though, Archibald has set her sights firmly on the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
‘The thing I’m finding motivating at the moment is the fact that I have so much space to explore,’ she says. ‘It is a framing I’ve only learned quite recently; that there is a time to explore and there is a time to exploit.
‘I feel like I’ve had my back against the wall over the past couple of years, where I’ve not really been willing to budge on what I think is right. I’ve been relatively domineering in the plan and what I need. I’ve not left a lot of space to try things that might go wrong.’
Archibald says fellow cyclist Wardell was a huge part of her former successes in the sport
Archibald describes this new-found realisation as ‘freeing’ heading into the next chapter. ‘Now, I’m desperate to explore,’ she says. ‘I want to say yes to as many things as possible.
‘There’s something fun about saying out loud to yourself: “I really want to fail in quite a few ways”. I’m not craving bad luck, but I’m willing to try things that might not work, so I can find out what does.’
To that end, Archibald is already thinking about life beyond elite sport. She has embarked upon a university access course and reveals her goal is to study for a nursing degree.
‘I started it the first time round in 2022,’ she says. ‘I’d had a run of injuries and applied thinking I had to sort out a back-up plan. Then, when Rab left, it made everything a lot harder. I thought: “I can’t plan a new life because I don’t want a new life”.
‘But I’ve now picked that back up to try make the path a bit clearer on the other side. I love cycling so much that I don’t want to be holding onto this because I have nothing else.’
Glasgow is set to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games and it transpires we will be seeing a lot more of Archibald on home turf in the build-up. ‘It is super exciting,’ she says. ‘And I’m going to be based back up in Glasgow over the next year.
Archibald hails a win over New Zealand in the final of last year’s UCI World Championships
‘I love the scene in Manchester, but I’ve never connected to it as home. I benefit so much from the training base, but I feel far more at peace where my friends and family are. With the way the racing calendar will go, I’ll have the freedom to train out of Glasgow instead.’
Then it will be onwards to LA 2028. Way back in the mists of time, Archibald talked about how she’d love to contest the Olympic omnium. Is that still a dream?
‘That is the big one,’ she confirms. ‘It was what I was building to in Paris. Because I think when you suspect: “I might be the best in the world at something”, it is not good enough to just think that; I would really need to prove it.
‘That is the thing about LA. I feel like I know the recipe — I’ve just not gotten in the kitchen and pulled it off. But I really feel I should try.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk