Multiple Olympic and world champion cyclist Katie Archibald retires to become nurse
Endurance specialist won Olympic gold in Rio and Tokyo‘I don’t know where I’ll get these feelings again’Katie Archibald, the Scottish track cyclist who won gold medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, has announced her retirement with immediate effect.The decision means the 32-year-old, who also won multiple world, European and Commonwealth titles, will not compete in the summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.Archibald said: “The draw of the real world has been pulling me for a while, but I’ve been too scared to leave the world I know and love and, ultimately, to let go of something I’m good at.”She is now retraining to be a nurse.“I’ve fallen completely in love with the whole thing,” Archibald said.
“When I let my friends and teammates know I was retiring from sport, they assumed it was because I wasn’t coping doing both.”Archibald, who also won team pursuit silver at the Tokyo Games along with gold in the Madison, first came to prominence through grass-track racing against men at events such as the Highland Games.She was then selected for the Great Britain academy squad at Manchester velodrome.“When you’re 19 and somebody says: ‘We’ll let you train full-time and target the Commonwealths and maybe even an Olympics,’ there’s never going to be another thought which says: ‘Ah, well, what are my other options?’” she told the Guardian in 2024.“It was the most unbelievable opportunity and thank goodness I went for it.
”She proved a quick learner and, as one of a stellar quartet, won the 2013 European team pursuit title on her competitive debut alongside Laura Kenny, Dani Rowe and Elinor Barker.She became a serial medal winner, taking six European titles, a world title and a Commonwealth Games bronze in the buildup to her Olympic debut in Rio 2016, where she won team pursuit gold with Kenny, Barker and Joanna Rowsell.In 13 years of racing Archibald won 51 medals while at world, European, Commonwealth and Olympic levels to establish herself as one of track cycling’s highest achievers.However, alongside the highs were some traumatic lows, none more so than the unexpected death of her partner, Rab Wardell, in 2022.At the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, Archibald led Team GB’s pursuiters to an emotionally-charged victory.
The empathy and emotional intelligence that made her such a popular and resilient teammate has fuelled her transition from competition to nursing.“I really want to stress that the nursing training isn’t forcing me into retirement,” she said.“At the same time, this thing that I am just enamoured with is making me excited for the future, and that makes this transition less scary.”Team GB’s performance director, Stephen Park, described Archibald as “relentless” and said that “her performances on track and habits and characteristics, off the bike, set the tone for the rest of the team and elevate those around her.“She is an incredibly generous member of the squad, having supported the development of many young riders who were initially inspired by her to take up the sport, and have been able to enjoy huge moments in their career as her teammate.
”Archibald said she would “keep learning, keep seeing the world, keep meeting incredible people,” but added: “I don’t know where I’ll get these feelings again, though.”“Riding the last lap of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games team pursuit final, I was so connected to the effort it was – just as in 2014 – like my mind left my body,” she said.“I don’t know if I’ll be able to experience that feeling in the future.”
Google announces raft of free upgrades for Android phones
Google has announced a range of features coming to Android phones this year, including a new Gemini Intelligence AI system and a tool to help users avoid distracting apps.Revealed in a livestreamed “Android Show” event, the free upgrades are scheduled to arrive in waves over the next year for high-end new and old phones alike, including Samsung and Pixel devices. Google also revealed that a new lineup of laptops will arrive in the autumn.Gemini Intelligence will combine the company’s top AI tools into one system aimed at being more proactively useful.It will be able to automate tasks by directly interacting with the apps already on a phone
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company
GameStop’s $55.5bn bid for eBay rejected as ‘neither credible nor attractive’
The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.This was despite the US games company – which became a global household name during the meme stock craze of 2021 – being worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn before its bid, almost a quarter of eBay’s $46bn valuation
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian.Donald Trump is headed to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, would join Trump
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO – who is close to Trump but criticized the US’s limitations on chip sales to China in an April interview, saying that he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI – will not be joining the president
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
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Ah, ah, ah, ah - I saved my dad’s life with a little help from The Office and the Bee Gees