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7 hours ago
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Team GB track cyclist Jack Carlin has announced his retirement after feeling unable to "ignite that spark again" after last summer's Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old claimed team sprint silver and sprint bronze in Paris last August - and the same in Tokyo three years earlier - among a haul of 19 international medals.
However, after taking time to recover and decompress with partner Christie in Australia, New Zealand and south east Asia last winter - following a horrendous crash in his final Olympic event - the Scot found his appetite to go again was lacking.
Carlin - who has had a "creeping realisation" that his career was drawing to a close for some time - says he is "daunted but excited" by his decision and finishes his career "content" with what he has achieved in a "whirlwind 10 years" at the top of the sport.
He plans to spend the day with his phone on 'do not disturb', potentially immersing himself instead in his rediscovered love of golf at his local club in Paisley.
"It's a decision that wasn't taken lightly, but also it is a relief," he told BBC Sport Scotland. "Even going into Paris, my motivation was dwindling. I had injuries leading into the Olympics and it took a lot to get to that start line.
"After that, I took myself away from the high-performance environment and tried to search for the fire to go until the next Olympics. But it never came back.
"I can win or lose by thousands of a second in every race so unless I can give 100%, I'm doing myself a disservice."
Less than a month ago, Carlin spoke of his excitement about the Commonwealth Games returning to Glasgow next summer. Not least because he is now living near the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, where the cycling will be held.
But his decision to quit had already been made and retrospective examination of what he said at the time shows a vagueness about his ambitions for that event.
As a potential poster boy for the reimagined event - as a kid he sat rapt in the tribunes in 2014 and won medals at the next two Games - was it a wrench to walk away from the chance of a glorious career conclusion?
"It's been the elephant in the room," Carlin said of Glasgow 2026.
"People I've told have asked, 'what about Glasgow?' but it's less than a year away and I'd be doing myself and the jersey a disservice if I decided to try and put it round my back again when I'm just not in the shape to do it."
Carlin does not need that elusive gold medal or one more wave of adoration from a home crowd to validate his achievements.
They are achievements that place him fourth in the list of all-time Scottish Olympic medal winners, behind only Duncan Scott, Sir Chris Hoy and Katherine Grainger.
As he says, plenty of his competitors will leave the sport without ribbons around their neck and precious metal in their hands.
Like him, they will have memories, experiences and friendships, and it is those - as much as the medals - that the Scot will cherish when he reflects.
"It's rare that someone steps away when they're still rubbing shoulders at the top," he adds. "But you have to be able to give 100%.
"I can come away from this saying 'I gave everything I could, I gave my whole body to this sport, and I'm satisfied'. I couldn't do anything more. So I can't be upset.
"I started this journey when I was 14 years old and my mum and dad gave up time and money that we didn't have to let me chase that dream.
"And if someone said to 'Wee Jack from Paisley' a decade ago that he'd have four Olympic medals around his neck, he wouldn't have believed them."
The challenge Carlin now faces is in establishing a new identity. As of today - and for the first time in his adult life - he is no longer 'Jack the cyclist'.
He has not been on a track in more than a year now, and does not miss squatting obscenely heavy amounts in the gym and endless hours indoors on static bikes.
He has, however, rediscovered his childhood love for simply riding a bike - if not quite one with a basket, bell and streamers.
Golf is scratching his sporting itch at the moment - his handicap is down to single figures - and even watching Scotland's footballers toil against Belarus at Hampden has not unduly affected his sunny disposition.
But 28 is young to retire. So what now?
"That's the question I've been sitting thinking about myself, to be honest," he says, suggesting a visit to the Jobcentre was not entirely out of the question.
"Sport's taught me a lot of life skills and given me a lot of experiences. I've probably done more in 10 years than some people do in 40 in the normal business world.
"I feel like I've got strengths I could add to a company so we'll wait and see. It's all about who the next Jack is after Jack the cyclist, which is actually really exciting."
