Chris Hoy

Sir Chris Hoy

Hoy at the at the Homecoming Parade in Glasgow, to celebrate the achievements of Scottish competitors at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Personal information
Full name	Christopher Andrew Hoy
Born	(1976-03-23) 23 March 1976 (age 37) Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Weight	92 kg (200 lb; 14.5 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	Sky Track Cycling
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Amateur team(s)
1984–1986 1986–1991 1992–1993 1994–2001 2001–2003 2004 2005–2007	Scotia BMX GT Factory BMX Team Dunedin CC City of Edinburgh RC Team Athena Team Persil Team Wolfson Microelectronics / Miller
Professional team(s)
2008	Team Sky+ HD
Medal record Competitor for  Great Britain Track cycling Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens 1 km time trial Gold 2008 Beijing Sprint Gold 2008 Beijing Team sprint Gold 2008 Beijing Keirin Gold 2012 London Team sprint Gold 2012 London Keirin Silver 2000 Sydney Team sprint World Championships Gold 2002 Ballerup 1 km time trial Gold 2002 Ballerup Team sprint Gold 2004 Melbourne 1 km time trial Gold 2005 Los Angeles Team sprint Gold 2006 Bordeaux 1 km time trial Gold 2007 Palma de Mallorca 1 km time trial Gold 2007 Palma de Mallorca Keirin Gold 2008 Manchester Sprint Gold 2008 Manchester Keirin Gold 2010 Ballerup Keirin Gold 2012 Melbourne Keirin Silver 1999 Berlin Team sprint Silver 2000 Manchester Team sprint Silver 2006 Bordeaux Team Sprint Silver 2007 Palma de Mallorca Team Sprint Silver 2008 Manchester Team sprint Silver 2011 Apeldoorn Keirin Silver 2011 Apeldoorn Team sprint Silver 2011 Apeldoorn Sprint Bronze 2001 Antwerp Team sprint Bronze 2003 Stuttgart Team sprint Bronze 2004 Melbourne Team sprint Bronze 2005 Los Angeles 1 km time trial Bronze 2010 Ballerup Team Sprint Bronze 2012 Melbourne Sprint European Championships Bronze 2010 Pruszków Team Sprint Competitor for  Scotland Commonwealth Games Gold 2002 Manchester 1 km time trial Gold 2006 Melbourne Team sprint Bronze 2002 Manchester Team sprint Bronze 2006 Melbourne 1 km time trial

Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy, MBE (born 23 March 1976) is a British^[2] track cyclist representing Great Britain at the Olympics and World Championships and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.

Hoy is an eleven-time world champion, six-time Olympic champion and a winner of a total of seven Olympic Games medals, six gold and one silver. Hoy is the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time.

With his three gold medals in 2008 Summer Olympics, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian,^[3] the first Briton to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games since Henry Taylor in 1908, and the most successful Olympic cyclist. He won a further two gold medals (in the keirin and team sprint) at the 2012 Summer Olympics, making him the most successful British Olympian of all time in terms of gold medals, and the joint most decorated athlete with fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins with seven medals in total.

[edit] Early life

Hoy grew up in the suburb of Corstorphine in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was educated at George Watson's College, a co-educational independent school in Edinburgh,^[4] followed by the University of St Andrews in 1996. He subsequently transferred to the University of Edinburgh, from which he graduated B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Sports Science in 1999.

Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.^[5] Before track cycling, Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked second in Britain, fifth in Europe, and ninth in the world. He received sponsorship from Slazenger and Kwik-Fit, and was competing in Europe and the U.S. Hoy also rowed for the Scottish junior team, coming second in the 1993 British championship with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs. He played rugby as part of his school's team.^[6]

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Hoy joined his first cycling club, Dunedin C.C., in 1992, and began concentrating on track cycling in 1994, when he joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club.^[6]

Hoy won silver at the 1999 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in the team sprint, riding as the third man. Regular team mates in the team sprint over the years have included Craig Maclean, Ross Edgar, Jamie Staff, Jason Queally, Matthew Crampton and Jason Kenny. The team's first World Title came in 2002, in the Ballerup Velodrome, Copenhagen. Hoy also won the Kilo (1 km track time trial) title the same year beating Arnaud Tournant by 1/1000 of a second.

[edit] Post-2004 Olympics

Following the decision to remove the Kilo from the Olympic programme after the 2004 games, Hoy sought to develop in other events.^[7] The first of these was the keirin. This event involves between six and eight riders following a small motorbike (the Derny) around the 250m track for 5.5 laps, as the bike slowly builds up the speed. The bike pulls off with 2.5 laps to go and the riders race for the line. Hoy had previously competed at the keirin in various events but one of his first major successes was at the Manchester round of the World Cup Classics Series in 2007, shortly before the World Championships, where he also won, ahead of his team mate Ross Edgar.^{[citation needed]}

This showed that Hoy was developing from just a pure power sprinter, in events like the Kilo and Team Sprint, into also being one of the best in the world at more tactical sprinting events such as the keirin^[8] and the individual sprint.

[edit] 2007 world record attempt

On 12 May 2007, Hoy attempted the world record for the kilometre. He fell 0.005 seconds short, clocking 58.880. He set a record for the 500m flying start at 24.758 seconds, over a second less than the 25.850 set by Arnaud Duble. Hoy set the sea-level kilometre record of 1 minute 0.711 seconds by winning the Olympics in Athens in 2004. The outright record of 58.875 seconds is held by Arnaud Tournant (France), set during 2001 at altitude in La Paz, Bolivia, where Hoy also attempted to break the record. Only 3 sub-60sec kilos have ever been ridden, Hoy recorded two of these over two days in La Paz.^[9]

Hoy's main achievement is his development in the individual sprint event considered to be the blue riband event of track cycling.^[10] Kilo riders like Hoy have historically not fared as well at this event, as they were less experienced in the tactical elements required for the sprint. Previously, Hoy had competed in the sprint at various World Cup events and Revolution meetings in Manchester, but it was not one of his main events and he did not compete in it at the World Championships or the Olympics. In the semi finals Hoy defeated Italian veteran Roberto Chiappa 2–0, to set up a meeting in the final against France's Kevin Sireau. Sireau was the World Cup Classics points winner for the season and had defeated Hoy 2–0 in their previous meeting only a few weeks earlier. However with the vocal Manchester crowd behind him Hoy was not to be denied victory and he completed the win 2–0, the first British man to win the sprint title in 52 years since Reg Harris.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2008 Olympics

Hoy at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester

Hoy became the first British Olympian for 100 years to claim three golds at one games at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. This came when he won the men's keirin, the men's team sprint and also the men's individual sprint.^[11]

The three man team sprint squad included Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff. Kenny replaced Ross Edgar just before the games. They defeated the French by a clear margin, despite the French team's previous dominance of the event.

The keirin was Hoy's second gold medal of the 2008 games, when he came home clear winner ahead of team mate Edgar.

Hoy reached the final round of the individual sprint without a glitch, where his opponent turned out to be his young team mate, Jason Kenny. Kenny was a junior world champion who had achieved a number of high placings. Hoy used his greater experience to defeat Kenny, completing his hat trick of Olympic titles.

[edit] 2008/09 season

Hoy did not race at the first major event of the 2009/10 season, the World Cup Classics Event in Manchester on 4 October – 2 November. He instead made an appearance to sign autographs and commentate with the BBC. He made his return to racing in the UK at the Revolution 22 event in Manchester in December. He received a standing ovation from the Manchester faithful at the start of the event when he was introduced to the crowd.^[12] At this event Hoy won both the Sprint and Keirin competitions, defeating likes of Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff, Ross Edgar, Matthew Crampton and Teun Mulder along the way. Hoy competed in the World Cup Classics series' final event in Copenhagen, Denmark in February, helping his team to a gold medal in the team sprint event. However, he crashed out during the men's Keirin final and was forced to miss the final day of competition, including the men's sprint. Although at first, his injury seemed minor, he returned to Manchester where, following a scan, he was diagnosed with a serious de-gloving injury which finished his season and kept him off his bike for almost 3 months.^[13] He was unable to compete as planned at the Revolution 24 event in Manchester the following weekend, he did however make an appearance at the event. He has had to pull out of the World Championships in Poland at the end of March, where he would have attempted to win 2 World titles, because of the hip injury.^[14]

[edit] 2009/10 season

Hoy celebrates winning the kerin at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark

Hoy started the 09/10 track season at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester at the British National Championships where he took only his second (and third) ever individual national titles. He took gold medals in the Keirin, Sprint and was part of the Team Sprint Team representing team SKY along with Jamie Staff and Jason Kenny. Two weeks later, he raced in round one of the UCI World Cup at the same venue and took gold in the Mens Keirin. He then went into day 2 of the competition and took gold in the sprint event, beating fellow Brit Matthew Crampton in the final 2–0. A third World Cup gold came in the Team Sprint on the Sunday. Having ridden and won 12 events over the weekend, he withdrew from the International Japanese Keirin which was consequently won by team mate Matt Crampton. At the 2010 UCI World Championships, Hoy was beaten in the quarter final of the men's sprint event by his German opponent, Robert Förstemann, who won after making an attack from the start line. He was part of the GB men's team sprint that took the bronze. In the Keirin event, Hoy won the gold medal, despite crashing in the heats, to take his tenth world title.^[15]

[edit] 2010/11 season

Hoy lost in the first round of the men's sprint at the European Championships to Ireland's Felix English. At the Manchester World Cup event in February 2011, Hoy lost in the semi-finals to Jason Kenny.^[16] Hoy took the match sprint title at the British National Championships in October 2011.^[17]

[edit] 2011/12 track season

At the 2012 World Cup event held in the new London Velodrome, Hoy won three medals. He won gold in the keirin and bronze in the team sprint, before winning gold in the Men's Sprint, losing just one race in four rounds.^[18]

[edit] 2012 Olympics

Hoy's gold pillar box in Hanover Street, Edinburgh. One of two painted gold in his honour during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Hoy was an ambassador for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Hoy led Team GB out as the team's flag carrier at the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games.^[19] He then went on to win gold in the team sprint with Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes, setting a new world record in the velodrome^[20] and becoming Team GB's joint gold record holder with Sir Steve Redgrave's tally of five gold medals with a total of six medals (5 gold, 1 silver).^[21]

On 7 August 2012 Hoy won gold in the Keirin to overtake Sir Steve Redgrave and become the most successful British olympian ever, winning a total of 6 gold medals, This also made him the joint holder of most medals won by any British athlete in the Olympic Games with fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins.^[22]

[edit] Personal life

Hoy is married to Sarra Kemp, a lawyer from Edinburgh.^[23] They were married on 17 April 2010 at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.^[24] They now live in Salford, Greater Manchester.^[25]

Hoy supports Heart of Midlothian Football Club.^[26]

[edit] Medal history

[edit] Honours

• 2005: Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Edinburgh
• 2005: Appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to cycling" in the 2005 New Year Honours.^[28]
• 2008: Sportsman of the Year, elected by the Sports Journalists' Association of Great Britain, winning a ballot of its membership ahead of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie.
• 2008: BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He finished ahead of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington. Hoy became the second cyclist ever to win the award after Tommy Simpson in 1965.^[29]
• 2009: Honorary Doctor of Science, University of St Andrews^[30]
• 2009: Appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2009 New Year Honours "for services to Sport".^[31]
• 2009: Inducted to the University of Edinburgh's Sports Hall of Fame.^[32]
• 2009: Train operating company SouthEastern named a high-speed Class 395 train after him.^[33]
• 2012: The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, built for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, is named in his honour.^[11][34]
• 2012: Top Gear (magazine) named him one of "The Men of the Year 2012" for being a car nut, and winning some cycle races.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Richard Moore, Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain's Track Cycling Revolution, June 2008 by Harper Collins. (ISBN 9780007265312)
• Chris Hoy: the Autobiography, Harper Collins in October 2009. (ISBN 9780007311316)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chris Hoy

• Official website
• Chris Hoy Rider Profile – Cycling Weekly
• "Chris Hoy – Olympic Record". British Olympic Association. 

Olympic Games
Preceded by Mark Foster	Flagbearer for  Great Britain London 2012	Succeeded by Incumbent