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Redgrave: Believes honour is in retirement
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Triple gold medal cyclist Chris Hoy should not be knighted until he has retired, believes Sir Steven Redgrave.
Since winning medals at three Olympics, including gold in Athens, silver in Sydney and an outstanding contribution of three golds to British cycling's haul in Beijing, suggestions have been made that Hoy should be recognised for his input.
Redgrave was knighted when he quit rowing with five golds at five consecutive Games and insists it is an honour which should only be conferred on retirement. Matthew Pinsent received one after winning four medals at successive Games
Redgrave said: "Should Chris Hoy be knighted? Yes, he will be knighted, I'm sure of that. But after these Games? Maybe not. Matthew gave up after his Games, I gave up after my Games. We were knighted after we retired.
"It is the ultimate. If you knight him now and he goes on to get four gold
medals next time or another three or only one what do you then? How do you
recognise that?"
Redgrave believes the system where honours are conferred on sportsmen who win Olympic golds should be changed, he said: "I disagree that if you win one Olympic gold medal you should get an MBE. If you win two at different Games you get upgraded to an OBE. If you win three you get upgraded to a CBE. If you get four you get knighted.
"I think that is wrong. As a country we are accepting that five to 10 gold medals is acceptable. I think we should be winning 10 to 15 on a regular basis. That is where our medals should be at."
Outstanding
Redgrave however believes Hoy's three gold medals better Michael Phelps's eight golds in the swimming pool and Usain Bolt's two sprint titles in world record times.
He said: "Hoy's golds are my moments of the Olympics. Because I'm British.
They (Bolt and Phelps) are outstanding achievements but to me the dominance of the British cycling team outshines Phelps."
Commenting on Hoy's return to Britain as one of their great Olympians, he said: "What Chris Hoy has done here is that there will be thousands of cyclists around the world saying 'I fancy doing that.'
"But you can't allow it to change your life if you are an athlete. You can enjoy it but you cannot let it get into your head.
"You get sucked into the charity circuit. A lot more demands are put on your time and you've got to make sure those demands don't take away from what you are going to do in four years' time."
