Hoy is an 11-time world champion and a six-time Olympic champion. With a total of seven Olympic medals, six gold and one silver, Hoy is the second most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time. Between 2012 and 2021, he was the most successful British Olympian and the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time. His 17 global titles across four disciplines make Hoy the second most successful track cyclist at the global level of all times behind Harrie Lavreysen.
With his three gold medals in 2008 Summer Olympics, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian, the first British male athlete to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games since Henry Taylor in 1908, and the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time. After winning a further two gold medals (in the keirin and team sprint) at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Hoy has won the second-most Olympic gold medals (six) of all British athletes, behind Jason Kenny, and more total medals (seven) than any except fellow cyclists Kenny and Sir Bradley Wiggins. Hoy has won Olympic gold medals in more separate events — team sprint (twice), match sprint, keirin (twice) and kilo — than any other cyclist.
In September 2023, Hoy was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. In October 2024, he reported that his condition was terminal and that he had been given between two and four years to live.
Hoy, whose first bike cost £5, was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[5] Hoy says the BMX bike he saw in the film is what inspired him to start cycling.[6] 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 USA. He first became aware of track cycling when he watched TV coverage of Scottish sprinter Eddie Alexander winning a bronze medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.[7] Hoy also represented the Scotland Junior Rowing Team and was second in the 1993 National Rowing Championships with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs. He played rugby as part of his school's team.[8]
Early cycling career
Hoy joined his first cycling club, Dunedin C.C., in 1990, aged 14, and began concentrating on track cycling in 1993, when he joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club.[8] In 1997, he and fellow Scottish sprinter Craig MacLean were tipped as medal prospects by Phil Liggett.[9]
Following Jason Queally's gold medal in the Kilo TT early in the Games, Hoy joined with him and Craig MacLean to win his first Olympic Medal, a Silver in the Team Sprint or "Olympic Sprint" as it was then called. Although they were beaten by an excellent French team, the two medals won for GB were to become the start of a renaissance of British track cycling after the debacle of the Atlanta Games, for which he and track endurance contemporary Sir Bradley Wiggins would eventually become the figureheads along with road sprinter Mark Cavendish. All three would eventually win BBC Sports Personality of the Year as cycling became mainstream in Great Britain.
2004 Olympics: Athens
Hoy arrived in Athens in the form of his life. His main event was the Kilo Time Trial. He was ranked No. 1 and was last man off. The sea level World Record was broken four times as he sat in the track centre waiting for his start. He had been involved in an accident in the athlete's village just a few days prior to competition where he came off his bike in front of a village bus, narrowly avoiding serious injury. As he came out of the starting gate, his scarred arms and legs showed how close he was to not competing.
The previous rider was Arnaud Tournant who set the fastest ever sea-level kilo. Chris came next and, cheered on by thousands of loyal British fans, he bettered the time on each lap, setting a new sea-level World and Olympic Record of 1.00.711. This was the first of his Olympic gold medals, but he suffered disappointment as Great Britain could only finish fifth in the Team Sprint.
Post-2004 Olympics
Angered by the decision to remove his specialist event, the Kilo, from the Olympic programme after the 2004 games, Hoy sought to develop in other events.[10] The first of these was the emerging keirin event. 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 attended keirin school in Japan during 2005 and 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 teammate 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[11] and the individual sprint. His success in the new events, however, was still marked by Hoy's ability to generate extraordinary power.
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. At the time, only 3 sub-60sec kilos had ever been ridden; Hoy recorded two of these over two days in La Paz.[12]
Hoy's main achievement is in the individual sprint, considered the blue ribbon event of track cycling.[13] 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.[citation needed]
In the semi-finals Hoy defeated Italian veteran Roberto Chiappa 2–0, to set up a meeting in the final against France's Kévin 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.[14]
Hoy became the first British male 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.[15]
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.[16] 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 degloving injury which finished his season and kept him off his bike for almost three months.[17] 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 had to pull out of the World Championships in Poland at the end of March, where he would have attempted to defend two World titles, because of the hip injury.[18]
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 Men's 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 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.[19]
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.[20] Hoy took the match sprint title at the British National Championships in October 2011.[21]
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.[22]
Hoy was an ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Hoy led Team GB out as the team's flag carrier at the opening ceremony.[23] 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[24] 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).[25]
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 Sir Bradley Wiggins and Jason Kenny.[26]
Retirement
On 18 April 2013, Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling. He said he was very proud to have taken part in the transformation of the sport.[27]
Hoy's interest in motorsport competition led him to contest the inaugural season of the Radical Sportscars SR1 Cup, scooping his first motorsport podium at Snetterton in the same season. Hoy has since contested selected rounds of the Radical SR3 Challenge and Radical European Masters in Radical's SR3 RS and SR8 RX open sportscars. On 8 April 2014 it was announced[28] that Hoy would be joining the British GT championship driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 with a view to competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016.
Hoy took his first victory in international competition at the opening round of the 2015 European Le Mans Series at Silverstone where he drove a Ginetta-Nissan to a class win alongside team-mate Charlie Robertson.[29] The pairing took another two wins in the series' LMP3 class, including at the penultimate round at Circuit Paul Ricard, which clinched them the class title with a round to spare.[30]
He subsequently competed at the 2015 Race of Champions at the London Olympic Stadium, receiving a late invitation to race as part of Team All Stars in the Nations Cup alongside Romain Grosjean as a replacement for Jorge Lorenzo after the motorcyclist suffered leg burns as a result of post-race celebrations on his motorbike when he clinched that season's MotoGP title.[31]
In March 2016 it was confirmed that Hoy would be entered for the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours, sharing a Ligier JS P2-Nissan with Andrea Pizzitola and Michael Munemann. He was the first Summer Olympic medallist to compete at Le Mans,[33] the ninth former Olympian to race there and the second Olympic champion to do so, after alpine skier Henri Oreiller.[34]
Hoy and his team-mates finished the race in 17th overall and 12th[35] in class.[36]
Complete British GT Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Hoy unveiled the brand which bears his name in November 2012, three months after winning the double Olympic gold in London. The debut range included three road bikes and four city bikes, as well as a track bike.[37] It was later extended by several other designs, including bicycles for children.[38]
Personal life and illness
Hoy is married to Sarra Kemp, Lady Hoy, a lawyer from Edinburgh. They were married in 2010 at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.[39][40] They have two children, a son and a daughter.[41][42]
Hoy's autobiography was published in 2009.[43] Hoy's first two children's fiction books, about a young cyclist called Flying Fergus, were published in 2016.[44][45] In 2020, Hoy published another children's book titled Be Amazing.[6]
In April 2013, Hoy accepted the appointment of ambassador to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets and assumed the rank of Honorary Group CaptainRAFVR(T).[46] He has since relinquished this role. In 2013, Hoy was appointed as an ambassador for UNICEF UK, having been an International Inspiration ambassador for UNICEF since 2009.[47]
Hoy has been Ambassador for the 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.[48]
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 raise money for homeless people.[49]
In September 2023, Hoy was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer, after complaining of a pain in his shoulder. News of his condition was made public on 16 February 2024, but no details were given and it was announced that Hoy was undergoing chemotherapy.[50]
In October 2024, 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.[51][52]
Chris Hoy: the Autobiography (2009, HarperCollins) ISBN9780007311316
Hoy, Chris (2 October 2018), How to ride a bike : from starting out to peak performance, Hamlyn, an imprint of Octopus Publishing (published 2018), ISBN978-0-600-63521-5
Children's fiction
Flying Fergus 2: The Great Cycle Challenge (2016, Bonnier Publishing Fiction); ISBN9781848125629
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