1. Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy was born on 23 March 1976 and is a former track cyclist and racing driver from Scotland who represented Great Britain at the Olympic and World Championships and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.
56 Facts About Chris Hoy
1. 2.
In September 2023, Chris Hoy was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer.
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The son of David and Carol Hoy, Chris Hoy was born on 23 March 1976 and grew up in Murrayfield, Edinburgh.
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Chris Hoy was privately educated at George Watson's College, followed by two years at the University of St Andrews studying Mathematics and Physics until 1996.
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Chris Hoy says the BMX bike he saw in the film is what inspired him to start cycling.
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Chris Hoy received sponsorship from Slazenger and Kwik-Fit, and was competing in Europe and the USA.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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Chris Hoy represented the Scotland Junior Rowing Team and was second in the 1993 National Rowing Championships with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs.
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Chris Hoy played rugby as part of his school's team.
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Chris Hoy won silver in Berlin, at the 1999 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in the team sprint, riding at man one, Craig MacLean at two and Jason Quealley at three.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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Chris 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 won, ahead of his teammate Ross Edgar.
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On 12 May 2007, Chris Hoy attempted the world record for the kilometre.
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Chris Hoy set a record for the 500m flying start at 24.758 seconds, over a second less than the 25.850 set by Arnaud Duble.
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Chris Hoy set the sea-level kilometre record of 1 minute 0.711 seconds by winning the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
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The outright record of 58.875 seconds is held by Arnaud Tournant, set during 2001 at altitude in La Paz, Bolivia, where Chris Hoy attempted to break the record.
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At the time, only 3 sub-60sec kilos had ever been ridden; Chris Hoy recorded two of these over two days in La Paz.
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Kilo riders like Chris Hoy have historically not fared as well at this event, as they were less experienced in the tactical elements required for the sprint.
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Previously, Chris 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.
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Chris Hoy became the first British male Olympian for 100 years to claim three golds at one games at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
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Chris Hoy instead made an appearance to sign autographs and commentate with the BBC.
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Chris Hoy received a standing ovation from the Manchester faithful at the start of the event when he was introduced to the crowd.
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At this event Chris 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.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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At the 2010 UCI World Championships, Chris Hoy was beaten in the quarter-final of the men's sprint event by his German opponent, Robert Forstemann, who won after making an attack from the start line.
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Chris Hoy was part of the GB men's team sprint that took the bronze.
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Chris Hoy lost in the first round of the men's sprint at the European Championships to Ireland's Felix English.
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At the Manchester World Cup event in February 2011, Chris Hoy lost in the semi-finals to Jason Kenny.
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Chris Hoy took the match sprint title at the British National Championships in October 2011.
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At the 2012 World Cup event held in the new London Velodrome, Chris Hoy won three medals.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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Chris Hoy was an ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
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Chris Hoy led Team GB out as the team's flag carrier at the opening ceremony.
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Chris Hoy then went on to win gold in the team sprint with Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes, setting a new world record in the velodrome 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.
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On 7 August 2012, Chris 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.
38.
On 18 April 2013, Chris Hoy announced his retirement from competitive cycling.
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Chris Hoy said he was very proud to have taken part in the transformation of the sport.
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Since retiring, Chris Hoy has been a regular pundit for BBC coverage of cycling events.
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Chris 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.
42.
On 8 April 2014 it was announced that Chris 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.
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Chris 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.
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Chris Hoy 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.
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In March 2016 it was confirmed that Chris Hoy would be entered for the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours, sharing a Ligier JS P2-Nissan with Andrea Pizzitola and Michael Munemann.
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Chris Hoy was the first Summer Olympic medallist to compete at Le Mans, the ninth former Olympian to race there and the second Olympic champion to do so, after alpine skier Henri Oreiller.
47.
Chris Hoy unveiled the brand which bears his name in November 2012, three months after winning the double Olympic gold in London.
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Chris Hoy is married to Sarra Kemp, Lady Chris Hoy, a lawyer from Edinburgh.
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In 2020, Chris Hoy published another children's book titled Be Amazing.
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In 2013, Chris Hoy was appointed as an ambassador for UNICEF UK, having been an International Inspiration ambassador for UNICEF since 2009.
51.
Chris Hoy has been Ambassador for the Scottish Association for Mental Health since 2009.
52.
In December 2016 and December 2017, Chris Hoy supported the Scottish social enterprise Social Bite by sleeping out at their Sleep in the Park events to raise money for homeless people.
53.
Chris Hoy is a supporter of Scotland rugby and has presented the match ball before selected games at Murrayfield Stadium.
54.
In September 2023, Chris Hoy was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer, after complaining of a pain in his shoulder.
55.
News of his condition was made public on 16 February 2024, but no details were given and it was announced that Chris Hoy was undergoing chemotherapy.
56.
Chris Hoy said that he had been given between two and four years to live.