Primary Times North Yorkshire October 2018

PrimaryTimes North &EastYorkshire
PRIMARY TIMES EXCLUSIVE
Sir Chris Hoy
on finding alife-long
love forsport
ChrisHoy talksabout hisfavouritememoryofcycling
and howthe wholefamilycan 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 past.”
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
toptips
•Make cycling
afamilyactivity
•Balance Bikes as opposed
to stabilisers, because it
instils an instinctive ability
to balance, rather than
it being such abig shock
when theycome off
•Ifyou can’t affordabike,
look at second hand ones
on offer or borrow bikes
from older siblings or
cousins
•Justkeep practicing, try
newroutesand try to have
fun with it
Becoming
a dad I’ve been
able to relive
the excitement
of riding a bike
for the very
first time, and I
absolutely love
that
Chris’ book ‘How to Ride a Bike’
is £20 at Octopus books.
16
R 2
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