Chris Hoy: 'I had no natural ability as a cyclist!'

The Olympic hero has written Be Amazing, an inspirational book for children that reveals how they too can be champions, with help from Stoic philosophy, sports psychology - and Beyonce

It was Steven Spielberg's fault. I was six when I saw ET," says Sir Chris Hoy. It changed my life. I wasn't interested in cycling at all before. The bikes I'd seen in Edinburgh just seemed functional things for getting from A to B. Then I saw those BMX bikes on screen and I was hooked. It wasn't the scene where they cycle across the sky, but when they get chased by the police and they're doing jumps and skidding round corners. It was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen. I wanted to do that."

He dreamed of getting a 110 Raleigh BMX bike for Christmas. A lot of money in those days. But my parents, being canny Scots, had different ideas. Dad picked up a 5 bike from a jumble sale, stripped it down, sprayed it black, put on new grips and some BMX stickers." Four years later, Hoy was leading in the semi-final of a BMX world championship race when disaster struck. Immediately after the last jump, my foot slipped and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get it back on the pedal fast enough. Two riders overtook me and I lost a place in the final. I was in tears afterwards."