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Chris Hoy's firm makes £1m profit in latest financial year

Britain's most successful Olympian enjoying commercial success following his track career...

Sir Chris Hoy, Britain’s most successful Olympian with six gold medals, is proving to have the Midas Touch in business too, with the company that looks after his commercial interests making a profit of just under £1 million in its latest financial year.

According to its latest accounts, Hoy’s company, Trackstars Limited, turned a profit of £980,000 in the year to 30 June 2014, reports the Edinburgh Evening News – around 40 times more than the £24,000 a year he received in Lottery funding prior to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Hoy won three gold medals there to add to the one he had clinched at Athens in 2004, and added a further two in London three years ago before announcing his retirement in 2013.

Since then, he has launched a motor racing career with Nissan, a range of bikes sold through Evans and cycle clothing in association with Vulpine and was also an ambassador for last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Unsurprisingly he is also in demand as a public speaker, and also works with a number of charities – but Hoy, who became a father last year, has also found time to start yet another sideline, this one authoring children’s books.

While Hoy withdrew more than £1 million in dividends from his business between 2009 and 2011, he has taken none since then and his company has assets of £1.4 million.

The newspaper notes that three years ago, Hoy’s finances came under the spotlight when it was revealed that he had received a loan of £325,000 from the business.

However, he insisted everything was above board, saying: “Everything I have done is as a UK resident and is UK taxable and not offshore. “The dividends that I took to repay the loan were in fact taxed at the highest rate.”

He added: “I saw an opportunity to buy property and with the guidance of my advisers I borrowed money from my company to do so. The loan was repaid shortly thereafter by declaration of fully taxable dividends.”

Given that track cyclists even of Hoy’s stature have miniscule on-bike earning power compared to the stars of the road, few would begrudge Hoy the ability to cash in on his fame in his retirement.

But his income is also dwarfed by the sums pulled in by some other Olympians; the swimmer Michael Phelps, who took his tally of gold medals to 18 in London, pulls in an estimated $10 million a year through endorsement deals with household names such as Louis Vuitton, Hilton, Procter & Gamble and Omega.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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12 comments

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samuri | 8 years ago
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Awesome. Absolutely made up that such a hard working guy is doing so well for himself.

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edster99 | 8 years ago
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Good on him. Best of luck Chris, if you can make a good living from it, then 100% I'm happy.

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Leviathan | 8 years ago
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Please note, Mr. Hoy will be paying us back more than £24K in taxes (I hope, don't pull a Barlow on us, Chris.)

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jollygoodvelo | 8 years ago
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Well done Chris. The company wouldn't be working if the products weren't appealing to the market. More power to his thighs, I say.

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jmaccelari | 8 years ago
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Well earned, I'd say... He deserves it.

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vonhelmet | 8 years ago
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Echoing the two comments above... I work with a guy who would've been going to Rio as a swimmer, but for a shoulder injury. He tells me that the money you get is very low, and that the only people who can make any serious money are those who can secure big sponsorship deals, which basically translates into those who are particularly attractive.

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justDave | 8 years ago
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Athletes in receipt of funding are essentially working for the nation at very low rates of pay. We benefit from the medals and status they bring, and for cycling, with a incredible increase in awareness and popularity of our sport. I'd say Chris and his team-mates have given us fantastic value for money.

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catfordrichard | 8 years ago
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I don't really think that they should have to repay it. It is after all effectively their 'wages'. And trust me on this as I was almost drafted into the handball program pre 2012, the money is really a very small amount for even the top people when you take into account the travel and other expenses. Although it wouldn't surprise me if Hoy did do a program in the future to support young riders. Maybe he already does to some extent but we just don't know about it? He doesn't strike me as some sort of loud mouth shout it from the hill tops kind of guy. But it also wouldn't surprise me to see him become a coach or director in the GB team

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carytb | 8 years ago
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Whilst I have no issue whatsoever with him making this type of money as clearly he is an exceptional man, isn't there a case for athletes repaying their funding in the same way that students have to?

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vonhelmet replied to carytb | 8 years ago
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carytb wrote:

Whilst I have no issue whatsoever with him making this type of money as clearly he is an exceptional man, isn't there a case for athletes repaying their funding in the same way that students have to?

The £24k referred to in the article? He won 3 gold medals for his country, does that not count as "repayment"?

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Kadinkski replied to carytb | 8 years ago
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carytb wrote:

Whilst I have no issue whatsoever with him making this type of money as clearly he is an exceptional man, isn't there a case for athletes repaying their funding in the same way that students have to?

I'd tend to agree if it was common for athletes to be paid like footballers, or even Chris Hoy. But its not.

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medic_ollie replied to carytb | 8 years ago
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The funding referred to in this article is lottery funding. Considering, according to their website, that they donate £33million each week, I think they can afford not to have it payed back.

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