Sir Chris Hoy and Kristina Vogel join the UCI Track Champions League
We are excited to confirm track cycling legends, Sir Chris Hoy and Kristina Vogel as ambassadors for the UCI Track Cycling League. Chris and Kristina will be bringing their expertise to the project and will be attending the events as part of the broadcast and live event.
Sir Chris Hoy
Sir Chris Hoy MBE, multiple world and Olympic champion track cyclist, is one of Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athletes, with six gold medals and one silver.
Following his historic hat-trick of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Chris was voted 2008 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and he was also awarded a Knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours list. Chris retired from competitive cycling in 2013 and his achievements throughout his career make him Scotland’s most successful Olympian, the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, and one of the most successful Olympic male cyclists of all time.
A motorsport enthusiast, in June 2016 Chris added to his record list of achievements when he finished the world’s most demanding motorsport endurance race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, on his debut.
Following his retirement Chris successfully launched a range of kids bikes, HOY bikes. He has also published a series of children’s books – Flying Fergus – with 10 instalments and most recently Be Amazing – an inspiring book written to motivate children to be their own champion.
A polished public speaker and media presenter, Chris is a main stay amongst sporting commentary and punditry in the UK having been an integral part of the BBC’s team covering the 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 2018 European Championships and the Tour de France.
Kristina Vogel
Kristina Vogel, from Efurt, Germany, is an eleven-time World, two-time Olympic and six-time Junior World Champion, and a role model for millions across the world.
Kristina discovered her passion for cycling when she was 10 years old. At the age of 17, she started for the RSC Turbine Erfurt and went on to become a junior two-time European champion and three-time world champion. In 2009 she suffered her first setback, an accident which resulted in a double jaw fracture, fractures to the cervical spine and hand bones. Vogel returned to the track in 2010, stronger than ever, winning her first World Cup and two years later her first World title.
In 2012 Kristina celebrated the Olympic victory in the team sprint with her partner Miriam Welte. The two Germans were the first Olympic champions in this discipline, which was newly included in the program of the Olympic Games. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she made headlines when she lost her saddle in the final race but came away with Olympic Gold, the first German in Olympic history to do so in the women’s sprint.
A few weeks after the 2016 Olympics, a training accident on the cycling track in Cottbus severed Kristina’s spinal cord, leaving her paraplegic and fighting for survival in the intensive care unit for several weeks. Kristina is now a role model for those with similar strokes of fate, with her infectious energy and zest for life.
Kristina’s life in a wheelchair has its limitations, but it has also presented new opportunities. Vogel is politically active in her hometown as a member of the Efurt City Council. She is also still closely associated with sport as an ambassador for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2020 in Berlin and a member of the track commission of the world cycling federation UCI.
