Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 8, 2011

Chris Hoy , MBE (born 23 March 1976 in Edinburgh) is a British track cyclist representing Great Britain and Scotland. He is a multiple world champion and Olympic Games gold medal winner. With his three gold medals in Beijing 2008, Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian, the first Briton to win three gold medals in a single Olympic games since Henry Taylor, in 1908, and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time.

Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. 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 US. Hoy also rowed for the Scottish junior team, coming second in the 1993 British championship with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs. He played rugby as part of his school's team. Hoy joined his first cycling club, Dunedin CC, in 1992 and began concentrating on track cycling in 1994, when he joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club.