Olympic gold medallist Katy Marchant has announced her retirement from cycling.

The 33-year-old helped the women’s team sprint trio win Britain’s first Olympic gold in that event at the 2024 Paris Games.

In the same year, she won World and European titles, to add to an individual sprint bronze medal on her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016.

Marchant said she considered continuing to the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 but her 13-year career came to an end with a silver at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.

“I’ve achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of achieving,” said Marchant.

“It feels really strange. It’s not been a difficult decision.

“Don’t get me wrong, there have been moments where I’ve thought, ‘could I just, should I just, what if I just?’ But I know what it takes to push on for another two years.

“I’m incredibly proud of where I’ve got to and what I’ve done.

“I just don’t want to make those choices anymore to keep doing what it takes to get to LA.”

In the early 2000s, Premier League defences tried to make the pitch as small as possible, giving their opposition less space to score in.

Coaches therefore encouraged their attackers to play quickly, taking advantage of open space that saw them face fewer defenders.

Logically, this made total sense.

It was Pep Guardiola’s influence that, in part, flipped this logic on its head over the last decade.

His Manchester City sides looked to force teams back into a compact defence, a challenge that in theory should be harder to break down.

The counter logic was that they were forcing opponents to give them a familiar challenge they were prepared for.

City’s defenders also had big spaces to cover, often standing at the halfway line.

But for Guardiola, those spaces were less worrying if the ball stayed near the opposition’s goal for as long as possible.

After all, if you have the ball, the opposition cannot score.

So why now are teams that dominate the ball dropping points?

Across this season’s opening 50 Premier League matches, teams recording at least 60% possession have won only 36.4% of those games, while in 2023-24, the figure was 53.5%.

Does this suggest possession football is on the way out? Well, the answer isn’t that simple.

Are teams winning because of their low possession, or having less possession because they have taken the lead early?

There could be some truth in both answers.