Sir Chris Hoy
Sir Chris Hoy began on the path to cycling success at the age of seven, racing BMX and ranking ninth in the world by the time he was 14 years old.
As a senior, Chris turned his attention to Track cycling and has been an integral member of the GB sprint squad since 1996. His first world medal came in 1999 in the form of a silver in the Team Sprint but it was in 2002 when the world champion titles started rolling in, with golds in both the Kilo and the Team Sprint paving the way to a further nine world champion titles to date.
Chris won his first Olympic Gold medal in Athens 2004 in the Kilo – an event that was dropped from the programme for Beijing 2008. Chris took this in his stride and switched his focus to three other Track sprint events – the Keirin, Sprint and Team Sprint. He went on to win a gold medal in all three at the Beijing Olympics, cementing his name in the history books.
Chris’s achievements throughout his career make him Scotland’s most successful Olympian, the first Briton since 1908 to win three Gold medals in a single Olympic Games and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time. Following his historic hat-trick of medals at the Beijing Olympics, Chris was voted 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and was awarded a Knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours list.
Chris suffered a set-back in early 2009 when he sustained a hip injury following a heavy fall at the Copenhagen world cup, leaving him unable to compete in the 2009 world championships. After a significant period of rest and recovery, Chris was back on form for the 2010 world championships which saw him regain his Keirin world champion title.
After coming second in the Keirin final at the 2011 world championships in Apeldoorn, Chris came back in what was to be an epic tactical finish storming through an impossible gap to beat the opposition to the finish line and win back the title in Melbourne in 2012.
In 2012 at his home Olympic Games in London, Chris won his fifth and sixth gold medals – in the Keirin and Team Sprint – becoming Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete of all time with six gold medals and one silver.
Website: www.chrishoy.com
