SIR Chris Hoy has got the six Olympic gold medals but his biographer – Scots journalist, Richard Moore – can match him for literary laurels, with half a dozen sports books out this autumn.
Out next week is an updated edition of ‘Heroes Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and the British Track Cycling Revolution’, while an updated ‘Chris Hoy: the Autobiography’, is scheduled for October.
Moore – who cycled, as a road racer, for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 – broke into journalism when he thought there should be more coverage of a doping scandal involving the Festina cycling team during that same year’s Tour de France.
After appearing on the bill of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Moore said: “A friend advised me to call Donald Cowey, then sports editor at Scotland on Sunday [now sports editor at The Herald].
“He told me Donald was one of the good guys, open-minded and appreciative of all sports. Donald listened to me and offered me the chance to write a piece the following week.”
That kicked off his career as a freelance with a clearly-identified specialist niche, writing mainly for Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman, Sunday Herald and The Herald.
Moore decided to move to London after the Beijing Olympics. “I went out there under my own steam at my own expense. I was under-employed and unable to get as many commissions as I thought it warranted. I also realised the industry was sadly declining in Scotland.”
Four years ago, ‘In Search of Robert Millar’ won the Best Biography at the British Sports Book Awards. There followed the two Hoy books, ‘Slaying the Badger’ and ‘Sky’s the Limit: Britain’s Quest to Conquer the Tour de France’.
He was speaking at book festival about The Dirtiest Race in History, about the 100 metres doping scandal, involving Ben Johnson, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
