Our Sporting ambassadors are honoured

Edinburgh honoured its returning Olympic and Paralympic heroes with a civic reception.

With 20 sports men and women competing in Beijing being either born, raised, educated or trained in the capital, the city wanted to say “well done” for their amazing success and “thank you” for helping raise the profile of sport locally, nationally and internationally.

George Watson’s College Pipes and Drums piped the elite athletes up the red carpet at Lothian Chambers. Among those present were four times Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy and swimmer Jim Anderson, one of Scotland’s most celebrated Paralympians, who picked up four medals in Beijing.

With his three gold medals in Beijing, Hoy became the first Briton to win three medals in a single Olympic games for 100 years and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time. Thirteen of the athletes participated in TeamGB, the most successful British team in 100 years, and seven were among the 102-medal Paralympian.

GOOD TO KNOW: Chris Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film ET. The Scottish National Velodrome being built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is to be named in his honour.