Katy Marchant

Katy Louise Nicholls and has a sister. Marchant began her sporting career as a heptathlete, and trained alongside Jessica Ennis at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Coached by Toni Minichiello, she represented Great Britain in the heptathlon at the 2012 World Junior Championships. Her switchover to cycling was instigated by Minichiello, who noticed that she was producing an unusually high power output while training on an exercise bike. He spoke to a former coach at British Cycling who suggested that they contact the organisation. Marchant had previously only cycled as a leisure activity and had no experience of track cycling.

Following a test session with British Cycling in January 2013, she subsequently undertook a six-week trial and faced a decision whether to change sports. She chose to switch to track cycling full-time, and in April 2013 was given a place in the Olympic Academy Programme as a sprint cyclist. Explaining the switch, Marchant said: "the British Cycling coaches were really encouraged by what they had seen from me and they were quite excited, so I thought, 'Why not give it a shot?'" In July 2014, she won a bronze medal in the team sprint with Rosie Blount at the under-23 European Championships, and also secured a further bronze medal in the keirin. In September, at the 2014 National Championships, Marchant won four medals: two silver and two bronze. In the sprint, she was defeated by Jessica Varnish in the final, and she finished runner-up again in the team sprint alongside Victoria Williamson. She also finished third in both the 500 m time trial and the keirin.

In July 2015, Marchant became the under-23 European keirin champion. Earlier in the competition, she and teammate Williamson claimed the silver medal in the team sprint. In September, she won four titles at the 2015 National Championships: the sprint, 500m time trial, keirin and the team sprint. In the sprint, she overcame Becky James in the final to win her first senior national title. In January 2016, Marchant and Varnish won a silver medal in the team sprint at the 2015–16 World Cup event in Hong Kong.

Marchant and Varnish then finished fifth at the 2016 World Championships, missing out on a place for the team sprint at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Only five European nations could qualify for the event and Great Britain finished sixth in the overall standings for qualification. The pair were both angry with British Cycling and blamed them for the situation. They felt that British Cycling had got their selection policy wrong by fielding 'less proven' team members into races during the qualifying period, with Marchant saying they had missed out through no fault of their own. British Cycling's lead coach, Iain Dyer, dismissed this, saying they had "no reason to feel let down". He also said that with hindsight, British Cycling wouldn't have changed much. Shane Sutton, the technical director of British Cycling, said that Marchant and Varnish needed to accept responsibility and that their emotional response to the matter had affected their relationships with the coaching staff.

Competing in the Rio Olympic Velodrome at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Marchant won a bronze medal in the sprint event. She was defeated by German rider Kristina Vogel in the semi-finals but then overcame Dutch cyclist Elis Ligtlee in the bronze-medal match. One month after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, she travelled to Izu to attend the Japan Keirin School to try and improve her skills in the discipline. Marchant was the only British female sprinter to appear at the 2017 World Championships, and she was eliminated in the first round of the sprint. Afterwards, she said she had been lacking "a little bit of zing" since the conclusion of the previous Olympic Games.

In the 2017–18 World Cup, Marchant secured a silver medal in the keirin at the event in Milton, Canada. This marked her first ever individual medal in a World Cup competition. In January 2018, at the National Championships, she won the 500 m time trial and sprint titles. In April, she teamed-up with Lauren Bate to win a bronze medal in the team sprint at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. She also finished sixth in the 500 m time trial. The following January, during the 2018–19 World Cup, Marchant won a silver medal in the keirin at the meeting in Cambridge, New Zealand. Later in the year, she finished first in the keirin at the 2019–20 World Cup event in Glasgow after beating Emma Hinze of Germany in a photo finish.

2021–present: Olympic and world champion Marchant was named to Great Britain's cycling squad for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In the quarter-finals of the keirin, she was involved in a crash that ended her participation in the event. Marchant stated: "I think that's just bike racing - wrong place, wrong time." In the sprint, she was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong. In April 2022, she revealed that she was expecting her first child. She stated that she would return to racing, explaining: "On the plane back [from Tokyo] I felt I was not quite finished, I still had things I wanted to do, and once I found out I was pregnant, something else came over me and I thought, 'I'm definitely not done'. I love a challenge and I'd really like to give this a go."

In January 2023, at the National Championships, Marchant was a member of the trio that won the team sprint title. She also finished runner-up in the keirin to Emma Finucane. The following month, she won a silver medal alongside Finucane and Lauren Bell in the team sprint at the 2023 European Track Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland. The trio lost to Germany in the final. At the 2023 Track Nations Cup in Milton, Marchant won a bronze medal in the keirin. She was promoted to third, after Canadian cyclist Lauriane Genest, who originally crossed the line in second place, was relegated due to a rules infraction.

At the 2024 European Track Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, Marchant became the first British woman to be the European champion in the 500 m time trial. She finished 0.037 seconds clear of French rider Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé. She also won a silver medal in the team sprint alongside Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Lowri Thomas. In the 2024 Track Nations Cup event in Adelaide, she won a gold medal in the team sprint (with Finucane and Capewell) and a silver medal in the keirin. At the next leg of the series in Hong Kong, Marchant, Finucane and Capewell again finished first in the team sprint to secure back-to-back wins. Prior to these victories, no British women's sprint team had won an international gold medal since 2012.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Marchant, again riding with Capewell and Finucane, won the gold medal in the women's team sprint. The trio broke the world record three times during the event, ultimately setting the new record at 45.186 seconds in the final against New Zealand. It was Great Britain's first ever medal in the event. In the keirin, she finished just outside of the medal positions in fourth place.

At the 2024 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark, Marchant, Finucane and Capewell became the world champions in the team sprint after defeating the Netherlands in the final. Their success marked Great Britain's first world title in the women's team sprint since 2008. She additionally won bronze medals in the 500 m time trial and the keirin. In December that year, she was involved in a crash during a UCI Track Champions League meeting in London. She collided with German rider Alessa-Catriona Pröpster and the pair went over barriers and ended up in the crowd; the meeting was subsequently abandoned and Marchant was taken to hospital. It was later revealed that she had broken her arm and dislocated two fingers.

Following a 15 month hiatus, which included giving birth to her second child, Marchant returned to racing at the 2026 British National Track Championships where she exited the sprint at the quarter-final stage. At the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Marchant won silver in the team sprint alongside Capewell and Rhianna Parris-Smith. The trio from England were defeated by the Welsh team in the gold medal race. She also finished fifth in the keirin.

Personal life Marchant married Rob Nicholls in September 2021, after the Tokyo Olympics. Their first child was born in June 2022.

In 2024, it was reported that Marchant, along with other members of Team GB's cycling team, had linked up with Manchester Bike Kitchen, a local community programme that helps to promote cycling as a health initiative.

Marchant was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 New Year Honours.

Major results 2013 British National Track Championships

2014 European Track Championships (U23)

2016 2015–16 World Cup 2nd Team sprint, Hong Kong (with Jessica Varnish) Olympic Games

2017 2017-18 World Cup 2nd Keirin, Milton

2018 British National Track Championships

Commonwealth Games

2019 2018-19 World Cup 2nd Keirin, Cambridge 2019-20 World Cup 1st Keirin, Glasgow 2023 British National Track Championships

European Championships

UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup 3rd Keirin, Milton

2024 European Championships

UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup 1st Team sprint, Adelaide (with Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell) 2nd Keirin 1st Team sprint, Hong Kong (with Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell) Olympic Games

UCI World Championships

2026 Commonwealth Games