Happy Birthday Scotland’s most successful Olympian, Chris Hoy.
Born in Edinburgh on March 23rd 1975,the 1982 film E.T the Extra Terrestrial inspired Chris Hoy to cycle. He was then a mere six year old boy. Between the age of seven and fourteen, Chris Hoy raced for BMX and was ranked two in Britain, ninth in the World and seventh in Europe. He then received a scholarship from Kwik-Fit and Slazenger to compete in the United States and in Europe.
Chris Hoy was also into rowing and rugby as a student. The first cycling club that he ever joined was Dunedin Cycling Club in 1992. Chris then started focusing on only track cycling from the year 1994 joining the City of Edinburgh Racing Club, his main events included the Team Sprint and the one kilometre Time Trial. It was Team Sprint that brought him his very first World Championship medal. His team came second in 1999. The first World Title for his team came in the year 2002 at Copenhagen in the Ballerup Velodrome. He also won the one kilometre time trial that same very year beating Arnaud Tournant. He was World champion in the years 2004, 2006 and 2007.
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.
Following his historic hat-trick of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Chris was voted 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He was also awarded a Knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours list, capping an extraordinary year. At the 2012 Olympics in London, Chris won his fifth and sixth gold medals – in the Keirin and Team Sprint – becoming OUR most successful Olympic athlete of all time with six gold medals and one silver.
In all he won 11 Gold medals, 6 Silver and 6 Bronze in World Championships, 6 Golds and a Silver at Olympics, and 2 Gold and 2 Bronze at Commonwealth games.
Chris retired from competitive cycling in 2013 he was the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, and one of the most successful Olympic cyclists of all time.
Following his retirement, Chris remains passionate about bikes and has successfully made the transition into the business world following the launch of his bike range HOY Bikes, cycling accessories and clothing. He has published a series of children’s books – Flying Fergus – and is currently working on a second series.
In June 2016, Chris added to his record list of achievements when he finished the world’s most demanding motorsport endurance race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, on his debut. Last year he had a miracle escape after crashing a racing car at more than 100mph at Silverstone race track.
Chris has become a polished public speaker and media presenter, and he was a key part of the BBC TV’s commentary and punditry team covering the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Hoy has been Ambassador for SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) since 2009. In that time he has devoted many hours to raising awareness of and funds for the mental health cause.In December 2016 and December 2017, Hoy supported the Scottish Social Enterprise Social Bite by sleeping out at their Sleep in the Park events to end homelessness in Scotland.
In September 2023, Hoy was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. In October last year, he made public the nature and severity of the disease, that it had spread to his bones and was now terminal. He said that he had been given between two and four years to live.
The cycling legend is determined to keep fighting with a leIn a personal reflection he talked about a significant change in mindset: "The biggest shift in my mentality in the last year and a half is learning to slow things down and still have the goals, still have the purpose, still have things to look forward to, but actually to appreciate the moment, suggesting there are still options on the table. Chris also said
"I still have plans to still have big exciting things and I have got plenty of those coming up in family holidays and having Tour De Four [his charity race] means I want to be fit and I want to go well .
"I want to train for it, so every time I go on the bike I think about that and the purpose behind it. But while I'm on the bike, I'm looking around me and I'm trying to take in, I look thinking 'this is beautiful' even if it's raining .
"I've got three or four friends who passed away very suddenly without any warning, without the chance to appreciate life, without the chance to say 'aren't we lucky?'".
"So, yeah, for me now, it is very much is about the present, but still looking forward to the future."
