Sir Chris Hoy on finding a life-long love for sport

Chris Hoy talks about his favourite memory of cycling and how the whole family can fall in love with it too

Encouraging children to try sports is essential to their health and physical development, and can spark a life-long love for sport.

Olympic cyclist, Sir Chris Hoy MBE is Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete of all time. In total he’s received six gold medals, one silver medal, and won eleven world championships. Chris’ passion for cycling started at a young age, before the competitions and medals, he just enjoyed the sport.

“One of my favourite memories is not getting my first bike, but my third bike. I was seven years old and had always had second hand bikes, so getting a brand new bike was a huge deal…”

“It was a black and gold Raleigh Super Burner and I had been looking at it in a catalogue for months and months - the page had practically fallen apart! It was also in my local bike shop window and I would stop and stare at it every time we went passed.”

Chris’ parents only agreed to buy the bike if he could raise half the money, all £50. Thinking that Chris would never reach the target, they set the challenge. But Chris’ drive and resilience was strong even at seven…

“I spent those few weeks shovelling snow, and charming my parent’s friends at dinner parties for £1 here and there and before I knew it just one month later I’d done it!”

It’s no surprise that Chris rose to the challenge. After he’d raised the money Chris’ parents kept their word...

“One day I was staring longingly at the bike in the shop window and they said ‘come on then let’s go in’. And to my shock and delight they bought it!”

The excitement didn’t wear off either after Chris had brought his new bike home… “I was absolutely obsessed with it. I cleaned it meticulously every night, and it was the first thing I saw when I woke up and the last thing I saw at night.”

For Chris it was this early experience of cycling that sparked his life-long passion for the sport that led him to compete, and eventually create and design his own range of bikes, Hoy bikes. With Chris’ success and advice in mind, children should take up a sport not to compete, or aspire to be an athlete, but first and foremost to find joy and a hobby in exercise, to potentially form a life-long passion for a sport.

 

Chris Hoy’s top tips

 

Chris’ book ‘How to Ride a Bike’ is £20 at Octopus books.

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