WHEN Carol Hoy saw a bike in a jumble sale 26 years ago, she considered haggling but decided against it as the money was going to charity. Yesterday, as she watched her son become a sporting legend she didn't grudge one penny of the £5 spent that day.
"It was his first bike and I bought it in Trinity Church Hall in Edinburgh, I went on the bus and couldn't come back with it on the bus so had to get a friend to come and collect it. I have to say a big thanks to whoever donated that."
It was to b
e a Christmas present and Hoy's father David would wait for him to go to bed before secretly tarting up the bicycle.
"It wasn't even a BMX," laughed Chris. "It was an old bike that my dad resprayed and put BMX handlebars on. I don't think I believed in Santa. I think I was a bit too streetwise but every kid remembers their first bike and it was amazing. I was six years old and it was black and had a shiny BMX sticker."
Almost three decades later and all Hoy's Christmases came at once in a week he described as the best of his life. After winning the third of his three historic golds in Beijing yesterday he cycled over to his parents. "He said 'Mum, I can't believe it, I can't believe it' and I said: 'Believe it boy.' I'm absolutely thrilled.
"I've said again and again, I'm a cyclist's mum who knows nothing about cycling. My eyes are closed half the time when I'm screaming him on. In fact, I was shouting once here for a female thinking it was Chris. I'm really bad, but David keeps me right. I wasn't complacent before the final, you never are because Chris tells you how good all these guys are but he has worked so hard – I know everyone else has too – and I was quite confident for him." In years gone by she said she would resort to superstition. "He lost a world championship in Stuttgart and I said to David I'd left my lucky earrings in the hotel and he said 'don't be ridiculous'. I thought he lost because of my earrings but the sensible Scottish lady in me said it had nothing to do with that.
"How ridiculous to think anything we did could influence the work he puts in. If he didn't win and he had done every single last bit of preparation he would say the other guy deserved it."
Minus any earrings yesterday, she watched her son become the first British athlete in a century to win three golds in a single Olympics. There were tears as the enormity of his week's work sank in and he realised that all the dedication of the past four years had paid off. But even those made his mum proud.
"He was emotional when he got the sprint title in Manchester and he cried in Athens but you know what? I'm quite glad he sheds a tear because I think he'd be a pretty funny kind of guy if he had just won his third Olympic gold of the Games and did not show emotion."
Back home in Edinburgh family and friends have been holding parties, gathering round the television to cheer on Hoy, but while Scotland and Great Britain as a whole go barmy, she said that Hoy had been shielded from the craziness.
"He now needs to unwind and get a picture of what is going on. I honestly don't see why it will change him, though. It would be naive to think it won't change his day-to-day life. After Athens he received a lot of media attention, everyone wanted wee bit of him, and he also tries to do a wee bit for charity. But I'm sure he'll have a holiday and break and then it will be back to business."
The full article contains 673 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
