SIR Steven Redgrave believes triple gold medal cyclist Chris Hoy should not be knighted until he has hung up his cycling boots.
There have been suggestions that Hoy, who has won medals at three Olympics, including a gold in Athens and a silver in Sydney, should be handed the ultimate prize as recognition for his outstanding contribution to British cycling's haul of gold in Be
ijing.
But Redgrave insists it is an honour which should only be conferred on retirement.
Redgrave received his knighthood when he quit rowing with five golds at five consecutive Games and Matthew Pinsent received one after winning four at successive Games.
Redgrave said: "I like recognition for outstanding achievement.
"Should Chris Hoy be knighted? Yes, he will be knighted, I'm sure of that. But after these Games? Maybe not. Matthew gave up after his Games, I gave up after my Games. We were knighted after we retired.
"I do believe he should be knighted but it should be on retirement.
"It is the ultimate. If you knight him now and he goes on to get four gold medals next time or another three or only one what do you then? How do you recognise that?
"You can't. So one of the other honours, yes. He's an MBE, that could be upgraded to a CBE after four and then in four years' time when he wins another hatful he should be knighted.
"If he's going to go on to achieve more that has to be recognised."
Redgrave, who was cheering on taekwondo's Aaron Cook as part of Visa's mentoring programme, also believes the system where honours are automatically conferred on sportsmen who win Olympic golds should be changed.
He said: "I disagree that if you win one Olympic gold medal you should get an MBE. If you win two at different Games you get upgraded to an OBE. If you win three you get upgraded to a CBE. If you get four you get knighted.
"I think that is wrong. It is wrong because as a country we are accepting that five to ten gold medals is acceptable. I think we should be winning 10 to 15 on a regular basis. That is where our medals should be at.
"But you cannot give out those many honours for those people. With all the winners we have here, can you honour all those people in one go? I don't think so."
Redgrave, however, picks Hoy's three gold medals as his outstanding achievement of the Games, better than Michael Phelps's eight golds in the swimming pool and better than Usain Bolt's two sprint titles in world record times.
He said: "Hoy's golds are my moments of the Olympics. Because I'm British. They (Bolt and Phelps) are outstanding achievements but to me the dominance of the British cycling team outshines Phelps."
He also has some words of advice for the Scot on how life might change when he returns to Britain as one the nation's greatest Olympians.
Redgrave said: "He will be recognised wherever he goes and that will stay with him for years and years.
"I know him reasonably well. He'll only be 36 next time so at his fifth Olympics he will be 40, two years older than I was at my last.
"What Chris Hoy has done here is that there will be thousands of cyclists around the world saying 'I fancy doing that.'
"But you can't allow it to change your life if you are an athlete. You can enjoy it but you cannot let it get into your head. You get more recognised, get more sponsorships, get asked to do a lot more things. You get sucked into the charity circuit. A lot more demands are put on your time and you've got to make sure those demands don't take away from what you are going to do in four years' time."
The full article contains 658 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
