Chris Hoy announces terminal cancer diagnosis

Sir Chris Hoy, one of Britain’s greatest Olympians who went on to enjoy a solid career in motorsport, has a terminal cancer that doctors say gives him just two to four years left to live. He went public about his diagnosis on Saturday in a feature with The Sunday Times.

Hoy was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer in September 2023, which he learned after going to a hospital to check on shoulder pain that turned out to be a tumour. Follow-up scans then determined the cancer had spread to his bones and created additional tumours across his body such as his spine and rib. He began chemotherapy in November, then revealed his battle on social media in February.

Shortly after the story’s publication, Hoy posted on his Instagram page, “You may see in the news this weekend some articles about my health, so I just wanted to reassure you all that I’m feeling fit, strong and positive, and overwhelmed by all the love and support shown to my family and me. Onwards!”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the report as “[s]uch sad news. Chris is a British sporting legend. To face his diagnosis with such positivity is inspiring. The whole country is behind him and his family.”

Until Sir Jason Kenny broke his records in 2021, Hoy had been the most accomplished British Olympic athlete of all time. From his début in 2000 until 2012, he scored six gold medals in track cycling including a trifecta at the 2008 Games, as well as a silver at the 2000 edition in team sprint. He is also a seventeen-time World Champion, and has two Commonwealth Games golds while representing Scotland.

After retiring from cycling in 2013, he decided to pursue auto racing starting with one-make series organised by Radical Sportscars. Hoy entered the British GT Championship in 2014 as a non-professional driver and finished ninth at Oulton Park in his maiden start; he went on to place twentieth in points with a runner-up finish at Spa. Five years later, Hoy returned to British GT for two rounds at Donington Park and Spa with runs of eighteenth and twenty-seventh, respectively.

In 2015, Hoy and Charlie Robertson won the European Le Mans Series’ LMP3 title in a Ginetta-Juno LMP3 from Team LNT, recording three victories at Silverstone, the Red Bull Ring, and Paul Ricard. The duo, joined by Mike Simpson and Gaetan Paletou, also finished second in class at that year’s 24 Hours of SIlverstone. Later in 2015, he and Romain Grosjean formed a team at the Race of Champions in London; Hoy and Sir Ben Ainslie also participated in the ROC Celebrity Skills Challenge..

Hoy entered his only 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016, driving a Ligier JS P2 for Algarve Pro Racing alongside Michael Munemann and Andrea Pizzitola. The team finished seventeenth overall and twelfth in LMP2.

While much of his racing had been on pavement, Hoy dabbled in off-road for the first time in 2019 when he entered the FIA World Rallycross Championship round at Barcelona where he was fifteenth in a Ford Fiesta from Oliver Bennett. From there, he went on to compete in Gymkhana GRiD and British Rallycross and eventually tried his hand at rallying at the 2022 Knockhill McRae Rally Challenge.

The 48-year-old has also tried out vehicles like Formula E and drift cars and even a Monster Jam truck as part of his 2020 series Dream Jobs with Chris Hoy.