Chris Hoy: The Autobiography
Story posted October 7
How I lived the dream and became Olympic champion
Published by HarperSport on 15th October 2009, £18.99 HB
A genuine British sporting superhero
Sir Chris Hoy returned from last year’s Beijing Olympics as the first Briton to win three Olympic gold medals at the same Games since 1908. The euphoric homecoming celebrations were just the start of a whirlwind year for Hoy, now the beacon for British sporting achievement. This inspirational autobiography tells the incredible story of how the cycling fanatic from Edinburgh became a Commonwealth, World and Olympic champion against the toughest of odds.
Speaking to British Cycling at the launch of his book, Chris had this to say about his life story. Chris explained that the last book which featured him was a book by Richard Moore (Heroes, Villains and Velodromes) on British Cycling and Chris was a common theme within that story. This latest book though says Chris, is his “life story”.
“During the period I had off the bike, I the chance to reflect not just on Beijing, or that year but my whole life. It has been nice to get it down on paper and document my story, my account of how my life has been up to Beijing. I realise I’m quite young to have written an autobiography but I think at this point in my life, it is good to look back and tell the story of how I got here and hopefully there is more to come.”
The book...
What makes a champion in sport? What is it like to compete at a high level, and what does it take to get there, and stay there? In his autobiography, Hoy returns to his roots as a child fully engaged with the BMX craze of the Eighties.
His first bike may have been a re-sprayed second-hand BMX his father had bought from a jumble sale, but even as a seven year old his will to succeed set him apart from other youngsters of his age. A promising rower and rugby player in school, it was when he joined his first local cycling club and spent most weekends of the year competing in national events from Blackpool to Bristol that the seeds of his future career were sown.
Hoy, fascinated by pioneering training methods, constantly pushed himself further towards his goal of becoming Olympic champion. With the devoted support of his family and inspiration from his team-mates and former champions such as Graeme Obree, Hoy drove himself to the pinnacle of his sport, winning a silver medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the team sprint, and then gold in Athens in 2004 in his specialist discipline, the 1km time trial.
When this category was dropped from the Olympics, Hoy then defied the doubters by reinventing himself as a track cycling sprinter and triple Olympic gold medallist in Beijing in 2008.
Full of the early struggles as a track cyclist, behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the Olympics, and some of the exciting and often bizarre moments Hoy has experienced since being catapulted into the media spotlight, this is a fascinating insight into the life of an ordinary man who was determined to achieve something truly extraordinary.
Sir Chris Hoy was born in Edinburgh in March 1976. He represented Scotland at junior level for BMX and rowing, and joined his first cycling club, Dunedin CC, in 1992. He began focusing on track racing and joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club a couple of years later. Chris has been a member of the British track cycling squad since 1996. He has a degree in applied sports science from the University of Edinburgh. He has four Olympic gold medals to his name, nine World Championships, and two Commonwealth Games gold medals. He received a knighthood in 2009 and is the current BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
