Sir Chris Hoy strikes gold with £1m commercial deals

BEFORE he became the nation's sporting golden boy, Chris Hoy was pocketing a modest £24,000 a year.
Sir Chris Hoy is a special adviser to Pure Gym, among his many business and leisure interests. Picture: contributedSir Chris Hoy is a special adviser to Pure Gym, among his many business and leisure interests. Picture: contributed
Sir Chris Hoy is a special adviser to Pure Gym, among his many business and leisure interests. Picture: contributed

But with six gold medals to his name – including two at London 2012 – times have certainly changed for Britain’s most decorated Olympian.

New figures show that Sir Chris, from Edinburgh, has struck gold off the track since his retirement from cycling after his company raked in more than £1 million last year.

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Since jumping off his bike for good in 2013, Sir Chris has launched new careers as a professional racing driver and a children’s author.

Latest accounts for his company Trackstars Limited, which channels income from his commercial activities, show the firm has total assets of £1,112,253.

That is made up of £783,371 held in the bank, £239,080 owed by debtors and fixed assets of £89,802.

Sir Chris, 39, owes £399,734 to unnamed creditors, leaving him with profits of £712,519 – slightly down on last year’s figures of £980,926.

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The accounts, filed at Companies House, cover the period up until June 30 last year.

Sir Chris set up the company in 2005, a year after winning gold at the Athens Olympics, but it is only since his triple gold medal-winning performance at the Beijing Games in 2008 that cash has poured in.

Sports stars often launch companies to spread out their income over their lifetimes as their actual athletic careers are usually relatively short.

Since his 2008 success, Sir Chris has been the face of advertising campaigns for Gillette as well as Kellogg’s Bran Flakes. He has also had lucrative deals with Highland Spring and Adidas and has launched his own range of bicycles called Hoy Bikes.

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Before the Beijing Olympics, Sir Chris was getting by on £24,000 a year in Lottery grants as well as small-scale sponsorship deals.

This week he promoted the first in a series of six children’s books which he has co-written.

Flying Fergus is about a nine-year-old boy who inherits his dad’s rusty old bike – only to discover there is more to it than meets the eye.

Sir Chris said: “Writing isn’t something I thought I’d ever achieve — it’s not something I thought I had the confidence to do. Although it has taken me out my comfort zone, it’s been amazing to have something new to be passionate about.”

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Sir Chris married Sarra Kemp, a lawyer from Edinburgh, at St Giles’ Cathedral in 2010 and their son Callum was born in October 2014.

The cycling star also published an autobiography in 2009.

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