Track racing can be a brutal sport, with high speeds and no room for error creating a potent mix resulting in, on occasion, some wild crashes. But, even after a wildly successful career on the boards, Sir Chris Hoy’s “worst crash” is much more recent.
The now-retired Olympian broke his leg recently while mountain biking, describing it as an “unfortunate spill” and “the worst crash I’ve ever had” while speaking with Sky Sports.
Sir Hoy, one of the U.K.’s most decorated cyclists with six Olympic gold medals, another silver, and numerous world championships and World Cup wins to his name, says he’s already recovering from the injury.
“It was a big one,” Hoy admits, adding “I’m doing better now, I’m still on crutches, hobbling about.”
The highly decorated track racer, who retired in 2013, was quick to put it in perspective.
“Worse things happen. I’ve been riding bikes for 43 years and it’s the worst crash I’ve ever had. I’m pretty lucky that’s the worst one I’ve had in all those years of riding.”
He does admit that, while he’s on the mend now, the initial recovery was a bit tougher. “You just don’t bounce back like you do when you’re younger.”
Sir Hoy isn’t just dealing with a broken leg. He announced last October that he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.
On that front, Sir Hoy said he’s making the most of a period of relative stability in treatment and doing everything he can to enjoy life.
“Once you’ve got past the diagnosis, which for me was over two years ago, now the first part of that is pretty grim and then you start treatment. Then, if you’re lucky like me, you respond to the treatment and then you enter a period of kind of stability,” Sir Hoy explained.
“It’s not completely stable, there’s times where it comes back and then you have to change treatment, but the fortunate thing for me in my situation, there are a number of different treatments out there, as there are for any men with prostate cancer.”
For now, he’s focusing on the opportunities he still has. “I want to live my life and I want to make the most of it. None of us are here forever so you want to make the most of the time you have and do the things you enjoy.”
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