Cyclist Sir Chris to be presented with lifetime achievement honour
SIR Chris Hoy is to be honoured at Sunday’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.
The cycling champion and Britain’s most successful Olympian will receive a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony in Glasgow.
Sir Chris, who recently became a father, will join the ranks of sporting greats Sir Steve Redgrave and Seve Ballesteros who previously received the honour.
The 38-year-old retired last year after capping his cycling career with a fifth and sixth Olympic gold at London 2012. Despite his decision to stop competing before the Commonwealth Games, he played a key role in the celebrations and was an ambassador for the summer’s event.
It was following a hat-trick of medals at the Beijing games in 2008 that Sir Chris was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The awards are being hosted in Scotland for the first time this year.
Rory McIlroy and Lewis Hamilton will battle it out to win the prestigious title at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow after being confirmed among the shortlist of 10 contenders.
Sir Chris, from Edinburgh, said: “It’s a huge honour to be receiving the lifetime achievement award.
“I never thought I’d see my name alongside the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave, David Beckham, Seve Ballesteros and others who’ve received this incredible honour, and it makes it even more special to
It’s a huge honour ... it makes it even more special to be receiving the award in Scotland
be receiving the award in Scotland.”
He has already been celebrating this week after his son Callum, who was born 11 weeks early in October, was discharged from hospital. He tweeted that he and his wife Sarra had received an “early Xmas present” in being allowed to bring their son home.
BBC Sport director Barbara Slater said: “As a former BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner, Sir Chris Hoy has been a tremendous ambassador for sport and, although he has retired from cycling, continues to be an inspiration to young athletes. It’s fantastic that he is not only being recognised for his exceptional achievements, but also that it is being awarded to him in his home country.”
McIlroy is odds-on favourite to become the first golfer to win the award since Nick Faldo in 1989 after helping Europe to Ryder Cup success. Hamilton’s second Formula One world title in Abu Dhabi makes him another strong contender.
Real Madrid star Gareth Bale, boxer Carl Froch, world gymnastics silver medallist Max Whitlock and multiple European and Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist Adam Peaty are also up for the title. Winter Olympic gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold, veteran European athletics champion Jo Pavey, dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin and Britain’s first Winter Paralympic champion Kelly Gallagher – with her guide Charlotte Evans – complete the nominations.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games champions, including bronze medal-winning swimmer Erraid Davies, are in the running for Young Sports Personality.