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Chris Hoy puts models from his new range of bikes, eponymously named Hoy,
through their paces on the track, in the countryside and in town
training, which I did. I didn’t enjoy the pain of the training but I enjoyed feeling as though every day I was taking just a little step towards my goal. You have to approach every session with the same commitment, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a race or a training session, you have to approach it 100% every day and that’s the biggest challenge as an athlete.
So are you now reconciled with yourself that you won’t be competing in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth Games? I didn’t want to make the decision to retire or not in the heat of that emotional aftermath of the 2012 Olympics, and I didn’t want to go to Glasgow just to wave to the crowd, I wanted to win a medal for Scotland, so I based the decision on logic and I just wasn’t producing the same power. Physically I could see I wasn’t going to be at my best for Glasgow. It was a tough decision but I know it was the right one and I’ll be able to enjoy the Games as a spectator and an ambassador.
Who are you tipping for cycling medals in Glasgow 2014? For the Scotland team, the men’s and women’s tandem teams are both
Paralympic champions so we stand a good chance in those events. For the rest of the team it’s going to be tough as the GB team is split up so it’s going to be weaker – the Aussies and the Kiwis are particularly strong in the men’s sprint events. In the women’s there’s a young girl called Katie Archibald who was part of the world- record breaking team in Mexico in December so she’s in with a good chance of winning a medal individually.
You have to enjoy the routine and the process of training
Any tips for competitors who are starting out on their career? You have to enjoy it – you don’t want to take it too seriously. But having said that, when you’re racing or when you’re training, give it your all, and don’t worry about other people because it’s easy at that age to be disheartened when you see that there’s people much better than you. Usually it’s because they’re bigger or growing faster or they just have a bit
more experience and you’re not on a level playing field when you’re in your childhood – it kind of levels out when you hit your late teens.
You’re an ambassador for UNICEF – what was your reason for getting involved with them? In the lead-up to the Games in 2012, UNICEF had a programme called International Inspiration, which was a way of trying to improve children’s lives in some of the poorest countries of the world through sport. Since then, I’ve continued as an ambassador for UNICEF as it does a huge amount of really good work around the world. I also do some work with a small
Scottish charity, the Scottish Association for Mental Health, as I think mental health is something we don’t really talk about yet a lot of people suffer from it. I’ve had various teammates and friends who’ve had mental health issues over the years and it’s still a bit of a taboo, so I like to give them any help I can to raise their profile. At one end of the spectrum is a huge global charity that everyone knows about and at the other is quite a small one that you feel you could possibly have a bigger impact on with the time you’ve got.
thelondonbikeshow.co.uk
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