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Hoy: Inspiration for aspiring athletes
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Fresh from completing a golden hat-trick at the Beijing Games, Chris Hoy is urging aspiring cyclists to believe they can 'do it clean'.
Adding to the gold he won at Athens, the 32-year-old track cyclist became the first Briton in 100 years to win three golds at a single Olympics with victory in the sprint final on Tuesday.
An American journalist questioned the authenticity of the results, giving cycling's past troubles with doping, after Britain gained their eighth cycling gold at the Games.
As an enthusiastic anti-drug campaigner, Hoy referred to the example of Jason Queally, who sparked Britain's cycling renaissance when he won the kilometre time-trial in the Sydney Games back in 2000.
"All I can say is that when I was a young rider coming through the ranks, I remember seeing Jason Queally, who I'd trained with, win that gold in Sydney," he said.
"I knew he'd won an Olympic gold medal clean and that was the day I thought 'wow if he can do it, I can do it.'
"Sadly, there are always going to be suspicions that this hasn't come out of the blue, but it's been 12 years in the making."
Rivals
After completing the five days of velodrome competition Britain's women came away with two of the three gold's on offer.
Overall British cyclists won seven of the ten events as well as picking up three silver and two bronze medals.
Hoy confessed he was surprised that there had been no comeback from their rivals to March's track World Championships when half of the 18 golds were won by Brits.
"What was surprising to me was not that we stepped up a whole new level because there are reasons for that- our preparation and our planning," he said.
"It seems surprising that other nations have underperformed- the gap has almost been exaggerated by some teams that have not been able to raise their game since the World Championships."
