Within just a couple of years of her introduction to track cycling, Lauriane Genest has established herself as one of the top sprinters in the world, highlighted by her bronze medal in the keirin during her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. She also finished eighth in the sprint during these same Olympic Games. 

Genest joined the national team in 2018, which included a trip to her first international competition, the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. She finished fourth in the sprint and called racing in the finals in the Anna Meares Velodrome – named after her idol – the highlight of her short career. She went on to win keirin silver and team sprint bronze at the 2018 Pan American Championships. 

Genest made her UCI World Cup debut on the home velodrome in Milton in October 2018. When she took part in her first UCI World Championship later that season, she was the lone Canadian woman in the sprint events. In September 2019, she won two gold medals at the Pan American Championships, taking the keirin title as well as the team sprint title alongside Kelsey Mitchell. 

The keirin has become Genest’s preferred individual event. It is in that event that she claimed her first World Cup medal, taking silver in Cambridge, New Zealand in December 2019. A month later, she and Mitchell captured gold in the team sprint at the World Cup stop in Milton.