Latest news with #TeamGB
Scottish Sun
13 hours ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Sir Chris Hoy reveals saving cancer lives has given him ‘huge lift' after opening up last year about his own battle
The Olympian legend has discussed the impact it's had on others HERO CYCLIST Sir Chris Hoy reveals saving cancer lives has given him 'huge lift' after opening up last year about his own battle SIR Chris Hoy revealed that using his platform to help save the lives of cancer sufferers has been a "huge lift". The cycling and Team GB icon, 49, opened up last year about his battle with terminal prostate cancer. Advertisement 2 Chris Hoy has said helping others fight cancer has given him a fresh lift Credit: AFP 2 The Scottish Olympic legend revealed last year he had stage 4 cancer Credit: Getty And the dad-of-two told how he's been bombarded with positive messages about his ongoing fight. He told The Sunday Times: "My Instagram message feed is stacked with people who had no symptoms, and no other kind of reason to go and get a PSA [prostate-specific antigen] test other than they'd seen my news. "And they did it off the back of that, and found out they do have prostate cancer and they've caught it early, and they're going to get treatment, and it's hopefully going to be OK. That gives me a huge lift." Six-time gold medal winner Hoy also opened up about the impact it's had on others. Advertisement The dad-of-two added: "That campaign has saved lives. "In all the chaos and all the fear and all the horror of first being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, you can never imagine any positive outcome coming from that situation. "So to know that there is one has given me a purpose. "In difficult moments, you remind yourself, actually there is a net positive from this whole situation. Advertisement "And I'm lucky because I have a platform." It comes after Sir Chris was rudely awoken at 4am after a hotel guest's blunder forced him to move room. Moment cycling hero Sir Chris Hoy forced to leave room at 4am amid cancer fight after bathroom floods through ceiling_1 The Scottish cycling legend, 49, attended the Ring Drivers' Convention in Nurburg, Germany, yesterday and enjoyed a spin in a Porsche 992 GT3 RS alongside Top Gear presenter Chris Harris. He shared a selfie of the pair on social media, captioning it: "First time on the @nuerburgring, what a flippin' place. Advertisement "Thought I'd jump in for a passenger lap with this guy in his 992 GT3 RS to learn the lines. Says he knows what he's doing…" Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Wales Online
16 hours ago
- Health
- Wales Online
Chris Hoy's selfless wife kept heartbreaking secret and their kids still don't know
Chris Hoy's selfless wife kept heartbreaking secret and their kids still don't know The Team GB legend announced last year that his condition was terminal with doctors giving him two to four years left to live Sarra was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after her husband received his cancer diagnosis Sir Chris Hoy has opened up on living with terminal cancer and revealed how he and his wife are approaching family life amid their respective health battles. The six-time Olympic champion cyclist was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 and announced last year that his condition was terminal, after a scan found primary cancer in his prostate which had spread to his bones, including his shoulder, pevils, ribs and spine. Tragically, Hoy was given between two and four years left to live by doctors. In a cruel twist, his wife Sarra was then diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS), having had a scan just a week after her husband's cancer diagnosis. The couple have two young children - Callum, 10, and Chloe, seven - and Hoy has spoken previously about how his first thought when Sarra got her diagnosis was how they were going to break the news to them, describing it as an "absolute horror" and "a waking nightmare". However, while the 49-year-old feared the impact that making his diagnosis public would have on his children, he now says that his illness is "not something that really scares them" and his family are currently "in a nice spot". "Touch wood, it doesn't feel as though they've been massively affected by it," he told The Times as he provided an update on his health. "They've always been a bit frustrated with people coming up, wanting a photograph of Daddy. Now they're like, 'Oh, is it because of the cancer?' "I think they understand that cancer is part of our lives. It's not something that really scares them, they don't really talk about it much, it's just there.' While Callum and Chloe know about their father's illness, however, Hoy also revealed he and Sarra have not told them about her MS diagnosis, adding that she "doesn't want the focus". Indeed, Sarra initially kept her illness from her husband as he dealt with his cancer diagnosis. The neurological condition, which affects the brain and spinal cord, is incurable but treatment can make it manageable. 'She doesn't talk about it a massive amount," he said when asked how Sarra's condition had affected daily life. "I think she's just determined to try and not allow it to get its feet under the table. It fluctuates, so she gets good days and bad days. "When the days are difficult, she doesn't ever admit to it, but clearly the thoughts are, 'Is this the start of a decline? Is this how it's going to be from now on?' It's just, it's very difficult, and she's so stoic and strong, and not willing to ask for sympathy.' On not telling their children, Hoy added: 'They know that she's got sore hands sometimes, and I think that's about the extent of it. "If it wasn't for my diagnosis, I think it would be getting a lot more attention, but she likes it that way. She doesn't want the focus, she just wants to crack on.' The Team GB icon has previously paid tribute to his wife as "the epitome of selflessness", having supported him in the wake of his diagnosis despite also dealing with her own heartbreaking health battle. He recalled in his autobiography that she went for a routine MRI just seven days after his cancer diagnosis for doctors to investigate a tingling sensation in her face and tongue and did not mention anything more of it for over a month. 'Then one evening in December, after our kids Callum and Chloe had gone to bed, Sarra looked serious and said she had something to tell me," he wrote. "I realised immediately it was something big as Sarra, always so strong in every situation, was beginning to crumble and struggling to get the words out. 'Do you remember that scan I went for?' she started through tear-filled eyes. 'Well, they think it might be multiple sclerosis'. I immediately broke down, distraught both by the news and the fact she'd received it without me there. 'She went on to explain they had called her and told her over a month before. It was so hard to try to compute that she had absorbed the awfulness of this diagnosis alone, without sharing it with me, in order to protect me. I tried to let the words sink in as my mind was spinning, trying to understand what had been happening to her, all while she had been accompanying me to every one of my own hospital appointments." Article continues below He added: "She is the epitome of selflessness, putting the kids and me before herself and always doing it through love not obligation. The future is a great unknown for us both now." Reflecting on how he felt after being told his cancer was terminal, Hoy added: "Initially you feel you're never going to tell your kids off again. You want them to only remember you as the perfect father who always says yes if they want an ice cream, or yes if they get on the iPad, or whatever. And you realise that that phase is very short. "It feels like the family routine is as it was before, which I think is remarkable, really. That will definitely change, obviously, but I think for now we're just getting on with life, and it just feels like we're in a nice spot.'
Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
I found Tom Daley's new documentary huncomfortable – but it's a vital watch
There's an unbelievable moment of contrast at the start of Tom Daley's new Discovery+ documentary. Titled '1.6 Seconds,' which is the time it takes for an Olympic diver to hit the water from the 10m board, the feature-length project gives us a glimpse into Tom's early childhood in the form of grainy home videos shot by his father, Robert. After we learn that Tom was a 'nightmare kid' on competition trips because he often felt homesick, we see this tiny little child soaring through the air and disappearing beneath the surface of the water in a series of amazing clips. It's hard to believe someone who looks so superhuman could be vulnerable to something as mundane as homesickness. Dubbed by his early coach Andy Banks as 'something special', it quickly becomes apparent that this Plymouth boy cannot stop winning competitions. To combat this, his coaches move him up through the age groups in a bid to teach him a lesson, only for him to go on and win world championship after world championship. The segment is bookended by a video clip in which Tom stands alongside his diving competitors. Five places down, a behemoth of an athlete with biceps the size of Tom's torso steps forward to receive applause. This is who he was up against, and this is who he was beating. It's the type of moment that the public has come to expect from the odds-defying champion. Thanks in part to his effervescence and receptiveness to total strangers, like me, Tom has allowed everything from cameras and journalists to brands into his life with very little opposition. However, moving beyond his diving prowess, the new documentary seeks to explain how a five-time Olympic champion struggled throughout his early life. Despite representing Team GB at the 2008 Olympics at the age of just 13, we see how Tom was, bizarrely, subject to some horrific bullying when he returned to his school from Beijing. If being bullied wasn't hard enough, the teenager then had to constantly explain to news sites and journalists who were camped with cameras outside his school what he was going through. Directed by Vaughan Sivell, the doc does an excellent job of providing a meditation on what the public does to young sports stars who are just breaking through. It's honestly heartbreaking at times to see how our obsession with sportspeople can shroud and cloak a person's life. Tom describes how 'abusive' his relationship was with the media during the devastating loss of his father, who pictured him at the funeral when he specifically asked not to be. One uncomfortable segment shows viewers how Tom was never truly able to stop and grieve the loss of his father. He immediately went back to doing interviews and practising diving to distract himself from the emotional turmoil. This is doubled by a troubling part where Tom developed body dysmorphia after being told that he was 'fat' before the 2012 Olympics. He states: 'I took some drastic measures to make sure the food was in my stomach'. It culminates in a gut-wrenching moment when Tom reveals he was told by his management team as late as 2017 that he 'wouldn't want people thinking he was gay' as he started to hang around with his now husband, the Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. If his mental health hadn't already taken enough of a toll, crisis meetings with his manager about whether he was going to lose all of his sponsorships if he came out as gay certainly didn't help. More Trending However, with each tough moment in the documentary, Tom's triumphs in the world of diving and his determination to be himself every step of the way make this a necessary, even critical viewing experience. Tom's journey demonstrates that collectively, we have a responsibility to allow athletes to be human beings, not just Gold medal machines. View More » 1.6 Seconds is available to watch on Discovery Plus from June 1. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: The Celebrity Traitors line-up is a game-changing moment in television
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Elsa Desmond: 'I might have to sell my car in the autumn, it'll be worth it'
Elsa Desmond was just eight years old when she turned on the telly and found herself captivated by the sight of people launching themselves down an ice tube at what turned out to be the Winter Olympics in the Italian Alps. The sport was luge and she was hooked. The good news was that sport was already in her blood. Her dad Brendan once coxed an eight to victory at Henley. Her mum Martha is still a good enough swimmer to be competitive at Masters meets. And young Elsa had an open mind. She played hockey, rugby and water polo, and she threw hammer and tried gymnastics, but Berkshire wasn't exactly a hotbed for winter sports. There were no luge tracks in the UK, or in Ireland where her grandparents had come from. The saying goes that if girls 'can't see then they can't be' when it comes to sport. Desmond couldn't spot anyone wearing British or Irish gear that day in Turin in 2006. And it just made her think how cool it would be to change that. Years of emails followed to the Olympic federations on both sides of the Irish Sea, and she was already 16 when the decade of badgering everyone and anyone finally paid off with an invite to tag along on a British Army sporting expedition to Europe. 'I think they thought I was a pain in the ass. Like, I've been trying to get on that camp for years and I think they finally thought, 'right, let her have a go and then she'll leave us alone'. And that unfortunately didn't happen.' She started off from a low height, her speeds weren't frightening, and she only completed five or six corners on the first run. Baby steps, but the teenager didn't crash any more than anyone else. If anything, she stood out for all the right reasons. The wait had been worth it. That was it. She was up and running. Desmond has seen some impressive athletes try luge and fail but athleticism is very much a key ingredient. Luge isn't skeleton or bobsleigh, you can't career off a wall and still win an Olympic medal, and she saw the beauty in that. Spatial awareness is non-negotiable, and an ability to think quickly while travelling at anything up to 140 kilometres an hour. Resilience is the key, not least due to the inevitable crashes and the ice burn and the bruises that follow. Those are challenges and traits that plenty of Olympic athletes will recognise and be able to tick off their list. Desmond? She has faced obstacles off the track that would have cowed most people and brought this love affair to an end long ago. It was a change of coaching setup that prompted the move from Team GB to Ireland. The major problem with that was, well, Ireland didn't have a luge federation. If she wanted to wear green on the global stage then it was up to her to create one. She was 19. There were five boxes to tick: establish a company at Company House, and then a sporting federation. After that, recognition from the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI), the International Olympic Committee and the International Luge Federation (FIL). An Argentinian athlete's parent provided some guidance, so did some friends in the FIL. Her mother's background in human resources came in handy too, but it was a steep learning curve and almost two years in the making. 'It was a lot of trial and error,' she laughs. 'There were a lot of mistakes made.' That was eight years ago. The ultimate goal was the 2026 Games in Milan Cortina but this wait wasn't as long. Beijing in 2022 wasn't really on the agenda but she crept in under the qualifying criteria and the call from the OFI to confirm it is one she will never forget. 'I may have made her say it three or four times because I just didn't believe her. I really didn't think that that was possible. And then I remember her hanging up and I just cried for about 10 minutes before I was even able to call my mom.' She would be Ireland's first luge athlete at an Olympic Games. Desmond had answered her phone that day while sitting on a bus that would take 48 hours to get from one venue to the next. The bigger nations fly. Smaller nations like Ireland, with one or two athletes, rough it and club together to make things work. That Desmond was the one contacted and not a coach was another point of difference. Normal procedure is for the OFI to inform the coach first. She didn't have one. This is a singular and at times lonely path. And an expensive one with it. The sled she used at the Beijing Olympics came, more or less, from off the shelf via a manufacturer on the open market. It was, to be blunt, a junior beginner's sled modified as much as it could be to get the job done. Now she is working with a German technician to get a proper spec sled that 'could be a complete game-changer' in her career, but they don't come cheap. The final bill might creep up as high as €20,000. Sacrifices, more of them, might be needed. 'We're trying to see what we can lease and what we can buy and I'm working with a technician to try to bring the price down… I might have to sell my car in autumn to be able to afford this new equipment and, if I have to do that, I have to do that. It'll be worth it.' There seems to be no obstacle that can stop this woman of so many parts and so much drive. Currently 26 places higher in the rankings than when she qualified for Beijing, the 2026 Games are well within her sights. Still only 27, Desmond is also the junior development program director for the Irish Luge Federation and she has served as the coach to Lily Cooke who became Ireland's first ever luge competitor at a Youth Olympics last year. Even that isn't everything. The only winter sports representative on the OFI's athlete commission, she was wise enough to recognise her limitations when quitting a brutally tough role as an emergency medicine doctor with the NHS in Southend. Home now is the town of Akureyri at the base of Eyjafjörður Fjord in northern Iceland where she works a similar role for 36 hours a week instead of 70 and for twice the pay. The ultimate aim in her medical career is to be an air medic. This is someone who doesn't like heights and flying, but then she already rips down ice chutes while lying back on a small sled at frightening speeds, and learns Icelandic in her spare time while interfacing with patients there in a critical role. Spinning plates is just what she does. 'It's certainly not easy. I have so many lists stuck up all over my computer, you would not believe it, just trying to keep track of everything that has to be done every summer and preparing for the winter.'
Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Anthony Joshua pleads with Team GB OIympian Delicious Orie to make retirement U-turn as he quits after one fight
AJ used a former world champion's words to get his point across OR NOT Anthony Joshua pleads with Team GB OIympian Delicious Orie to make retirement U-turn as he quits after one fight Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ANTHONY JOSHUA has pleaded with Olympian Delicious Orie to reconsider his decision to retire. Orie was eliminated in the first round of the 2024 Olympics but soon turned professional with Frank Warren - after snubbing an offer from the WWE. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Anthony Joshua pleaded with Olympian Delicious Orie to reconsider retirement Credit: @deliciousboxing The heavyweight won his debut against Milos Veletic in April - but laboured over the four rounds. Just a month later and the 27-year-old announced he was retiring from boxing after just one pro bout. But AJ - who used to spar Orie - spoke out to urge the Russian-born Brit not to walk away just yet. He wrote on Instagram: "History repeats itself. Many of us wanted to stop at some stage. READ MORE IN boxing CHARR BLIMEY Anthony Joshua faces off with ex-champ who survived assassination attempt "Some at the start, some in the middle and at some point all of us will have to stop. "I think you should take your time but keep training! You have skills & have talent." Joshua accompanied the message with an old interview with Michael Spinks - the 1976 Olympic gold medalist who later won world titles. Spinks told KO TV: "I heard boxing was not a pretty business for the boxers and also I was a little afraid of that. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS "I didn't know how I well I would fare in the industry. So I just wanted to get a good job after winning the gold medal and then let that be. "But things happened that pushed me into the pros and I just talking it one step at a time. I didn't know I would go as far as I did." Tense moment Anthony Joshua and Mahmoud Charr face off ahead of proposed two-fight deal Despite Spinks' concerns over turning pro, he would win world titles at light-heavyweight and heavyweight. He also famously lost to Mike Tyson in 1988 - his final bout before retiring. And like Orie - like Spinks - credited wanting to get a job outside the ring as a reason for not wanting to fight on any further. He posted: "After much reflection, I have decided to hang up my gloves and retire from boxing to follow up on my degree and enter the corporate world. "This sport has given me so much — incredible memories, unforgettable experiences travelling the world and many opportunities to represent my country at the biggest stages in the world. Forever grateful for the journey. "Over time, I've come to recognise that the same fire and love I once had for boxing has gradually faded. "As I've grown, I've come to value clarity and honesty with myself above all. "I hoped that turning professional would reignite the passion, but the truth has become clear: it hasn't. "Every fighter knows you need a deep love for the craft to reach the top — and without it, there's no path forward. "Out of respect for the sport and for myself, it's time to step away with honesty."
