Laura Kenny and Team England embrace social media as BBC changed for Commonwealth Games
Kenny, who is Team England President, has put social media at the centre of her work to support the team and the delivery of the Games.
Kenny retired from her career in the velodrome in March 2024 and has since stepped into a new role as President of Commonwealth Games England.
Dame Laura Kenny believes this summer’s Commonwealth Games must embrace social media to cut through to Gen Z.
Glasgow 2026 will not be on free-to-air television in the UK with TNT Sports replacing the BBC as the rightsholder, although the publicly owned broadcaster will still have some live coverage. Kenny, who is Team England President, has put social media at the centre of her work to support the team and the delivery of the Games.
“When I first took on the presidency role, I said one of the key things that I really wanted involvement in was social media and how we bring it to ‘Gen Z’ and the younger generations,” the three-time Commonwealth medallist said. “My role is how do we get it on social media and bring as much attention to it that way as we can because ultimately, if someone isn’t seeing it on the TV, they will see it on their phone because that is the world we are now living in.”
Kenny’s first experience of a major Games came as she competed at Delhi 2010 before going on to win five Olympic medals to hold the title as Great Britain’s most successful Olympian. As a mum of three, Kenny is keenly aware of the impact social media has on younger generations and is keen to ensure her children don’t see the world as a glossy picture-perfect Instagram carousel.
She added: “It makes me nervous being a parent because social media is so scary, and you can’t make mistakes. I am so open on social media, good or bad, I want to be good and bad because that is what I want my kids to see.
“I don’t want them to see a pretty painted picture of all these houses that look stunning 24/7. That is not life, and we are just bringing up our kids to think they are not good enough, and I don’t want that.”
With 225,000 followers on Instagram, Kenny has seen the good and bad sides of social media. And it was posting about breastfeeding that led her to finally take a stand against cruel internet trolls.
“There were a couple of negative comments when I posted about breastfeeding, and I just thought, I have taken this for too long,” she said. “Because breastfeeding is hard, it hurts, there are so many things that can be awful about it, but you can also get through it.
“So for someone to turn around and say I was attention seeking, I just thought no, the reason I did it was to help others, I am not having you turn around and comment on there for making me feel bad for trying to help someone else.”
Team England are Ready to Win at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Keep up to date on https://teamengland.org/
