Sir Chris Hoy
What can you say about Sir Chris Hoy that hasn’t already been said? He is quite simply the greatest track cyclist of his generation and his long list of achievements stretches back over two decades.
Hoy burst onto the scene with a silver medal-winning performance in the team sprint at the 1999 World Championships and repeated that feat 12 months later in Antwerp before gaining another silver medal in his first Olympics in Sydney.
Fast facts
- At the Beijing games in 2008 Hoy became the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time
- Hoy began his cycling career not on the track, but riding BMX
- He is the only British athlete since 1908 to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games
By the time the next Games rolled around, Hoy had added six further World Championship medals to his impressive track record – three of them gold – and had also taken home two medals from the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In Athens he secured his first Olympic title by romping to victory in the 1km time trial, an achievement which earned him an MBE in the 2005 New Year Honours List.
Hoy's unbelievable form showed no signs of abating in the years which followed Athens, and he picked up six further world titles in the sprint, team sprint, 1km time trial and keirin before his now legendary 2008 Olympics campaign.
It was in Beijing that the Scotsman won three Olympic gold medals in the space of four memorable days. The first came in the team sprint alongside Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff, and Hoy edged out team-mate Ross Edgar in the keirin final before completing his hat-trick against Kenny in the sprint.
Hoy's 2010-11 season was impressive. In his World Cup campaign he picked up medals in the keirin, individual and team sprint events. And in 2012 he added the World Keirin Championship to his impressive medal haul.
After Beijing, London 2012 would not have seemed complete without a Chris Hoy Gold and sure enough he, Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes duly delivered with a new World Record in the Team Sprint. He wasn't finished there and in the keiren produced a fitting ending to an amazing Olympic career by winning the last track race of London 2012. Chris will go down in history as one of Britain's greatest Olympians with a medal tally of 6 Gold's and 1 Silver.
