Four-time Olympic medallist Jack Carlin has announced his retirement from the Great Britain Cycling Team, bringing an end to his fantastic decade-long career in the saddle.
One of Scotland’s most successful Olympians, with two silver and two bronze medals to his name, the sprinter’s impressive haul also saw him win five World Championship medals, six European Championship medals and three in the Commonwealth Games – with an overall competition tally of 11 silvers and eight bronze.
His undoubted career highlights came at the Tokyo and Paris Games, where he won two silvers in the team sprints and two bronze in the individual events, while his efforts for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and Birmingham gave him great pride as he achieved sprint silver and bronze and Keirin silver.
Passion to inspire future talent
Having long credited his career to the legacy of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Carlin is now hoping to play a part in inspiring the next generation of cyclists as he works closely with the Glasgow 2026 organising committee in preparation for next summer’s return.
Passionate about harnessing Scottish talent and showcasing the country and cycling on a global scale, he sees Glasgow 2026 as the perfect opportunity to showcase his sport and the opportunities which can be garnered from it.
Carlin said: “After over a decade representing Great Britain on the world stage, it’s time to officially close this chapter of my sporting career. It’s hard to put into words how proud I feel looking back. A young boy from Paisley, who worked to the bone, chasing a dream and somehow ended up competing against the best in the world, standing on podiums and becoming Scotland’s third-most decorated male Olympian.
“After Paris 2024, I stepped away from the high-performance bubble to focus on my recovery and gave myself space to breathe, to heal and to figure out whether the hunger to go again for another Olympic cycle was there.
“Truth is, I was ready for change… and in this game, I believe that if you’re not 100% in, you’re not giving enough. To the incredible team around me at British Cycling, my coaches, support staff, mechanics and especially my physio teams who put me back together more times than I can count, thank you.”
Pivotal role in Team GB success
Paying tribute to Carlin, Performance Director for the Great Britain Cycling Team, Stephen Park CBE said: “Jack has been a stalwart in our men’s team sprint squad for almost a decade, playing a pivotal part in Great Britain’s success on international stages, and the biggest stage of all; the Olympic Games. It has been a great pleasure to see Jack develop from a talented youngster to a leader within the team, both as his Performance Director but also more personally as a fellow Scot.
“Having experienced the vast range of highs and lows this sport has to offer, Carlin’s resilience has always shone through, and he has set a fine example for young cyclists and Scots alike.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Jack for his contributions to the team over the years, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he takes his experience forward. I’m fully confident we have not seen the last of Jack, and I know I speak for all of us in GBCT when I wish him the best as he moves into life off the bike.”
Having been teammates before coaching Jack for the past three years, Sir Jason Kenny said of the Scotsman: “It was a pleasure to share the podium with Jack as a teammate and battle against him on the track. In Tokyo and Paris, Jack was a crucial part of the team, and the medals wouldn’t have been possible without him. He has left a performance gap in the men’s sprint team with his departure that will be difficult to fill.
“I’ll always be grateful for his commitment to the team and for helping to develop and push the sport on in this country.”
An inspiring career
Having found track cycling following a football injury, he joined Glasgow Riders, where his natural talent quickly blossomed, and he never looked back.
His first taste of success came soon after joining the Great Britain Cycling Team Senior Academy in 2016, where he teamed up with fellow academy riders Ryan Owens and Joe Truman to form a formidable team sprint line-up, winning gold at the 2016 UEC European Championships in Montichiari, Italy.
The trio went on to compete at the elite Europeans, taking a silver medal at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (France), a velodrome, which would go on to be pivotal in Carlin’s career.
The following years saw Carlin continue to rack up the medals as part of the team sprint squad, before getting his first individual elite medal, a bronze in the sprint at the 2017 World Cup in Milton. This was quickly followed by his first World Championship medal, a team sprint silver as part of a five-man team sprint squad alongside Kenny, Phil Hindes, Owens and Truman. This was followed by his first individual world medal, a silver in the sprint event.
Having quickly seen success representing Great Britain, 2018 gave Carlin his first chance at representing his beloved Scotland on the Gold Coast at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Here, he continued to showcase his individual talent, taking his first of three eventual Commonwealth medals, a silver in the individual sprint.
The following years saw him collect four more silver team sprint medals at World Cup, European and World level, as he worked his way towards selection for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
At the biggest event of his career to date, Carlin took the Games in his stride and came away with his first Olympic medal, a silver as part of the team sprint alongside long-time teammates Kenny and Owens, in what would become both of their final Games.
Carlin went on to shine solo, winning a bronze in the individual sprint, beating Denis Demtriev (AIN) in the final.
Scottish pride
With little respite after the delayed Games, quickly came another chance to represent his home nation at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where Carlin secured the first keirin medal of his career, a silver, along with a bronze in the sprint. A month later, Carlin went on to bag another silver in the UEC European Track Cycling Championships in Munich, Germany.
Meanwhile, in the team sprint, he won bronze at both the European and world championships that year, in a new team configuration alongside Hamish Turnbull and Ali Fielding.
A third European team sprint silver medal was won, leading into one of Carlin’s happiest moments, representing Great Britain at the inaugural multi-discipline 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, hosted in Glasgow. Cheered on by adoring Scottish fans, Carlin was able to deliver when it mattered, after an intense few years of competition, winning a bronze medal in the individual sprint in front of a home crowd.
Having overcome a broken ankle just weeks before the Games, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Carlin’s second, saw a fantastic start for him and team sprint teammates Turnbull and newcomer Ed Lowe, who flew through qualifying rounds to face an unstoppable Dutch team in the gold medal final. Three fantastic individual laps delivered a national record time of 41.814, to see them take an incredible silver medal.
Individually, Carlin battled through intense rounds of the men’s sprint event, eventually claiming a bronze medal, his fourth Olympic medal over an incredibly successful career, to top off what would be his final Olympic experience.
