Burning Issue: Should cyclist Chris Hoy be knighted for his gold medal heroics in Beijing?

Published on Tuesday 19 August 2008 21:35

YES PETE WISHART Scottish National Party MP and spokesman on sport at Westminster

IN GOING for gold, I doubt whether many athletes are dreaming of a knighthood and I suspect that, for Chris Hoy, the only "title" he was focused on was that of Olympic champion. No doubt, indeed, Chris will be bemused by debate here over whether he deserves a knighthood – the idea has probably never occurred to him. However, I for one believe his inspirational medal tally deserves such official recognition.

Chris Hoy is an outstanding athlete and, with his hat-trick of gold medals, has cycled into the record books. He has not only earned the title as Scotland's greatest Olympian, but is also the first British athlete to win three golds at the same games in 100 years.

As well as a catalogue of other sporting achievements, Chris is also a magnificent role model for aspiring young athletes, particularly for those aiming to compete in the 2012 Olympics and Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. He has achieved something on a world stage which is extraordinary, and that should be recognised and celebrated.

To me it is people like Chris, who give above and beyond what is expected, who should be beneficiaries of the honours system. I do not just mean sporting greats, but people from all walks of life who do remarkable things.

Knighthoods, and indeed all honours, should be about recognising and rewarding excellence in all fields, rather than being sold off to the highest bidder in exchange for political donations, for example. As Scotland's greatest Olympian to date, in my view there is no more appropriate recognition for Chris Hoy than a knighthood.

NO

GRAHAM SMITH

Campaign manager for Republic, a group in favour of an elected head of state

I AM very proud of Team GB and I entirely agree that Chris Hoy and his teammates fully deserve all the recognition they can get for their achievements. Talk of knighthoods however is, in my view, completely misplaced. It's not that Hoy's achievements should not be recognised, it's just that in the 21st century titles such as "sir" should be a thing of the past.

Knighthoods are a mock-feudal symbol of honour and status handed down from our hereditary monarch. They are symbolic of backward-looking and outdated values, not of the modern and diverse Britain we live in today. They are used by the political and royal elites to curry favour with sporting and cultural heroes, in a shabby attempt to bask in reflected glory and to shore up their own sense of legitimacy.

Our athletes have achieved a great deal more than those who hand out these so-called honours, and for that they get rewarded and recognised in ways far more compelling than a knighthood: Olympic medals. The honours they get from the Queen have been rendered cheap and meaningless by the confetti-like give-away of titles indulged in by recent governments. Every two-bit celebrity or long-living chat show host gets a gong if they wait long enough.

Our honours system is broken, it's time it was replaced with something modern, relevant and genuinely meaningful. Let sports people, entrepreneurs and actors be rewarded within their own professions. Let's have a national honours system only for the few, for those who truly deserve them: those who have performed some significant service beyond their duty or job and those who have shown outstanding heroism – and no-one else.