SIR Bradley Wiggins has enrolled to do a degree in social work.
Speaking on the The Big Issue, Wiggins, 39, said he wanted to help people.
The 2012 Tour de France winner said he no longer wanted to “live off the back of” his cycling career.
Wiggins said his difficult childhood has given him a “mental toughness”.
He said, “Those horrific things I saw when I was growing up – nothing can shock me now, and I want to use that mental toughness working as a social worker.”
Wiggins, who took Olympic gold in the time trial event in London just days after his Tour win, says he wants to be known for something other than his sporting success.
“When people say, ‘Oh, you’re that cyclist’, I’ll say, ‘No, that was a few years ago. I’m a social worker now’.”
After retiring from cycling, Wiggins tried his hand at rowing, but found more success as a TV pundit for Eurosport.
Although he says he wants to use his own experience of growing up in Kilburn, London, with an estranged father to support others.
“Now I can do the TV job, but I’ve also enrolled to do an open university degree in social work,” he said. “I want to help people.”
Wiggins was at the centre of controversy after Fancy Bears, the Russian hackers group, leaked details of the Briton’s therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) in 2016.
