A career retrospective of six times Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy

Joy of six: Sir Chris Hoy has surpassed Sir Steve Redgrave's total of five Olympic gold medals.SNS Group

As Sir Chris Hoy prepares to take to the track in what is likely to be his final Olympics, we've decided to look back on the numerous highlights from a glittering thirteen years so far.

Britain's most successful ever Olympian has said he will wait until after the 2012 games are over before deciding on his future. The 36-year-old has collected a haul of six Olympic gold medals in his career.

Hoy won the first medal of his career in 1999, collecting a silver medal at the World Championships in the team sprint alongside Craig MacLean and Jason Queally. The same trio would repeat the feat in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics and at the 2000 World Championships in Manchester.

In 2001 they added a bronze medal from the World Championships, but it was in 2002 that Hoy first struck gold. After finishing first in the kilo at the Commonwealth Games, Hoy added another team sprint bronze, this time with Craig MacLean and Ross Edgar. This was followed in September of the same year by two gold medals at the Copenhagen World Championships in the kilo and team pursuit.

After winning a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships, Hoy won his first Olympic gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens in the kilo. He won gold in the same event at the World Championships of the same year, adding another team bronze. A year later he added a gold medal at the World Championships and another bronze in the kilo.

The Scottish Commonwealth team won gold at the 2006 games, as Hoy returned from Melbourne with a bronze in the kilo. However, after the decision to withdraw that event from the Olympics, Hoy started competing in the keirin and sprint disciplines, but not before his fifth World Championship gold.

In 2007 Hoy won not just his traditional gold medal in the kilo, but added gold in the keirin, along with silver in the team pursuit. It was in 2008 that Hoy had the finest moments of his career so far. After winning the team sprint with Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff, he added gold medals in the keirin and in the sprint, becoming the first British athlete to win three gold medals in a single Olympics for a century.

Not content with that haul, he added individual golds in the keirin and sprint events at the World Championship, following all of that with the title of 2008 Sports Personality of the Year.

Despite being injured for much of 2009, Hoy was knighted for his services to sport in the 2009 honours list. His name was further crystallised in the annals of sporting excellence when ground was broken on the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow, ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Hoy added a further gold in the 2010 World Championships in the keirin, before a trio of silver medals a year later. In the run-up to the 2012 games he added his 11th World Championship gold medal in the keirin, before breaking the world record with his team-mates, Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes, while winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.

Hoy's tally now stands at 11 World Championship gold medals, eight silver medals, six bronze medals, two Commonwealth Gold medals, two Commonwealth bronze medals, six Olympic gold medals and a silver medal. He stands as the single most decorated Olympian in the history of British sport.

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