All About Manchester

The incredible Hoy

Last summer, Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy made history in Beijing by becoming the first British athlete in 100 years to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games. He was subsequently crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, beating Lewis Hamilton and Rebecca Adlington to the honour. The 32-year-old sports star talks to All About Manchester about his meteoric rise to fame and his down-to-earth life in Manchester.

It is 1pm on Dec 23, 2008 and Chris Hoy is at the Velodrome, in east Manchester, preparing for his last training session before Christmas. But before he can get on with it, there are about half a dozen other things to attend to, including meeting with a sponsor, signing some sports memorabilia for a charity auction and ringing All About Manchester for an interview that he promised to try to squeeze in. So when the phone does ring, we all breathe a sigh of relief.

Hoy has been absurdly busy since his triumphant return from Beijing, so we decide to skip the chit chat and cut to the chase. "Did you think that 2008 would be such a big year for you?"

His answer comes swiftly and confidently. "I knew it was going to be a good year, but to actually achieve everything that I hoped for is an incredible feeling. Basically everything that could have worked out did work out."

For Hoy, Beijing was the culmination of a hugely successful career that started as a hobby at the age of seven, when he raced BMX. He continued cycling through his teenage years and joined his first cycling club, Dunedin CC, in 1992. "I just did it for fun," he recalls. "Then as I progressed it became possible to do it as a full-time pursuit thanks to the availability of lottery grants. It's bizarre how that has become my career in the end."

Chris Hoy, cycling, All About Manchester

And what a career it has been. His trophy cabinet was already bursting with gold before he boarded the plane to Beijing last summer. A Commonwealth, World and Olympic champion, he was awarded two honorary doctorates and an MBE before he turned 30. But he did not become a household name until he returned home with a whopping three gold Olympic medals last August, making him one of Britain's most successful Olympians ever - a feat so great it took Hoy some time to grasp. "It really only hit home when I got back to the UK and all of a sudden there was a media frenzy and I realised how much interest the public had taken in the Olympics."

2008 was a fantastic year for British sport as a whole. Lewis Hamilton made headlines around the world, and so did Rebecca Adlington and Andy Murray. Yet Hoy was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and by a large margin, too.

A simple explanation for his triumph would be that he is obviously a lot more popular than the other contenders. Unfortunately this cyclist will not play ball. He offers his own theory: "I think the Beijing Olympics really captured the imagination of the British public. It reminded people that we're not a second-class nation when it comes to sport; we can compete against the very best in the world in a number of sports.

"So our Olympics success was a boost for British pride, and with the doom and gloom in the newspapers every day, it was nice to have something to celebrate. And because I won three gold medals, that gave me a little bit more exposure than the other athletes - that's probably why I won it."

"But surely the fact that everyone thinks you are an all round nice bloke also helped, right?" we insist shamelessly, not leaving him much room to manoeuvre.

He laughs awkwardly and shakes the compliment off. "The press can be funny; if they are against you, it's really difficult to get your true personality across. Lewis Hamilton had a bit of a hard time with the British press; well I met him for the first time last week and I thought he was a really nice, genuine bloke. I've been very lucky in that I've not had bad press."

Hoy sounds like a man who is not comfortable with his newly-found fame. He insists his status within the team has not been affected by the fact that he is now the hottest British athlete but admits, with a tone of melancholy in his voice, that his private life is no longer the same.

"When I came home after the 2004 Athens Olympics, where I won a gold medal, people would come up occasionally and say 'hello' or indicate that they recognise me, but this is a whole different level of public status. It's incredible. Almost anywhere I go now, from shopping in a supermarket to walking down the street and stopping for petrol, people seem to recognise me. It's amazing because everyone is really friendly, but it's also a bit daunting when you start to realise that you are no longer anonymous; that everywhere you go people will know who you are."

Loss of anonymity is not the only pitfall of fame; another is that the rules of gravity seem to stop applying to you, but Hoy says he is counting on his loved ones to help him keep his feet on the ground. "I have a good family and good friends; if there was any risk of me getting carried away with myself, then they would keep me in place."

Originally from Edinburgh, Hoy lives and trains in Manchester, where he says the world-class training facility in Sportcity has been crucial in his spectacular rise to the top. "The Velodrome in Manchester has been the starting point for everybody. It was the first facility of its kind in the country, so my success would not have been possible without it."

With Manchester being home to the British Cycling team, Hoy expects to stick around for the foreseeable future, training with his team-mates and striving for more golds. But considering that this is an athlete who has won every event there is to win in his sport, what more can there possibly be to fight for?

"My ambition now is to finish my career with at least one gold medal at an Olympics in front of a home crowd. To win a gold medal in London in 2012 would be fantastic. And eventually, if I still have the chance, I'd like to be able to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014."

Hoy admits he is feeling the pressure to win more golds in the London Olympics, but claims that the expectations are not weighing down on him. "I know people are looking for more success from the cycling team because we've shown that we've got the potential to do well, and I think that's a nice position to be in."

Perhaps it is still early days to start agonising about living up to his superhuman public image in 2012. That date must seem like an ice age away to a man who has to juggle a zillion commitments every day. Thankfully for Hoy, 2009 is shaping up to be a quieter year on the track. "The world championships are in March but I don't really expect to be back in Olympic form by then because I have so many obligations to my sponsors and various other commitments. Everything now is about 2012 and the interim years are important but only as a stepping stone."

Away from the track, he says he plans to spend a little more time being Chris and a little less time being a national hero. "Since Beijing I've not really had much time to myself; it's been quite busy and at times quite stressful. So my new year's resolution is to try to make a bit more time for my family and friends."

If you think the flying Scotsman is living la vida loca in the fast lane when he is not riding his bike, think again. "I like to spend as little time on my feet as possible; I try to rest and keep my feet up. So when I'm not training, I spend time in front of the TV or reading books or just doing really mundane stuff. I don't get much time to stay at home so it's quite nice to have a bit of downtime; it's a luxury to do nothing at all."

After some prodding he admits he does sometimes get out of his Salford house to stretch his legs, especially when there's no good rugby game to watch on TV, but do not expect to bump into him at your local. "I don't go to the pub often because I can't drink alcohol during the main season, so cafes have become my pub - I like to go out and have a coffee and watch the world go by. I've also recently got into golf, which is not too strenuous the way I play it. I go to a driving range with a bucket full of balls and spend the afternoon."

Hoy's self-discipline is one of the reasons why he is so successful in a sport that is so much tougher than he makes it look - a sport that he passionately promotes. "It's not easy. You have to sacrifice a lot; you have to commit. For every person who succeeds there are probably 100 who have failed. Training is very vigorous, you have to work very hard, but the rewards are there and it's an amazing feeling to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games. I would say to anyone who has the talent and the inclination to go for it, give it a go. Even if you don't win an Olympic gold medal you can still have a great life and great experiences out of being a cyclist."

With the interview done, another chore to check off his list for the day, it is time to take to the track and do the thing that he does better than anyone else in the world. The thing that he does in Manchester.

A few weeks after this interview, Chris Hoy was knighted in the New Year Honours list. You can watch him race in Revolution Cycling in Manchester on Feb 21.

Images of Chris Hoy courtesy of British Cycling

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