Sir Christopher "Chris" Hoy, Kt, MBE (born 23 March 1976 in Edinburgh) is a track cyclist representing Great Britain and Scotland. He is a multiple world champion and Olympic Games gold and silver medal winner. With his three gold medals in Beijing 2008 Hoy became Scotland's most successful Olympian, the first Briton to win three medals in a single Olympic games since Henry Taylor, in 1908, and the most successful Olympic male cyclist of all time.

Hoy went to school at George Watson's College, an independent school in Edinburgh. He continued studies at the University of St Andrews in 1996, before transferring to Moray House at the University of Edinburgh from where he graduated with a BSc (Hons) in sports science in 1999. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in July 2005 and another from Heriot-Watt University in November 2005. Hoy was inspired to cycle at age six by the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Before track cycling, Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked 2nd in Britain, 5th in Europe and 9th in the world. He received sponsorship from Slazenger and Kwik-Fit and was competing in Europe and the US. Hoy also rowed for the Scottish junior team, coming second in the 1993 British championship with Grant Florence in the coxless pairs. He also played rugby as part of his school's team. Hoy joined his first cycling club, Dunedin CC, in 1992 and began concentrating on track cycling in 1994, when he joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club.

Hoy was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to cycling in the 2005 New Year Honours. Much like fellow British Athlete Rebecca Adlington, due to his success at the 2008 Olympic games winning 3 gold medals, he too has been suggested as a contender for a knighthood upon retirement. On 12 May 2007, Hoy attempted the world record for the kilometre. He fell 0.005 seconds short, clocking 58.880. He set a record for the 500m flying start at 24.758 seconds, a second less than the 25.850 set by Arnaud Duble. Hoy set the sea-level kilometre record of 1 minute 0.711 seconds by winning the Olympics in Athens in 2004. The outright record of 58.875 seconds is held by Arnaud Tournant (France), set during 2001 at altitude in La Paz, Bolivia, where Hoy also attempted to break the record. Hoy is an ambassador for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and the Scottish National Velodrome being built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is to be named in his honour.

Hoy was gazetted a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours 2009.

(Above entry taken from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hoy
Photograph courtsey of SPSA Edinburgh - photograph by Gordon Bruce - Copyright SPSA Edinburgh)

Jackie Bird (born July 31, 1962 in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire) is a Scottish newsreader, working for BBC Scotland. During the 1990s, she presented an early morning show on Saturdays on BBC Radio 2 between 4:00 and 6:00am

Jackie Bird is one of the best-known faces in television in Scotland. She presents BBC Scotland's flagship nightly news programme Reporting Scotland and also hosts other key programmes including the Hogmanay Show and BBC Children in Need. She is also the regular presenter of the monthly political programme Scottish Questions from Westminster.

Jackie also writes and produces for TV and radio. 2007 saw the launch of her new comedy series The Lewis Lectures, for BBC Radio Scotland, and a six part sitcom series Having It All. A busy newspaper columnist and contributor, Jackie is in high demand as host of corporate events including conferences, award ceremonies and after dinner speaking. She is a keen runner and patron of JogScotland. She is also a swimmer and all-round sports enthusiast.

(Above entries taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Bird
and from the BBC Press Office website http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/scotland/jackiebird.shtml
Photograph of Jackie Bird in Afghanistan courtsey of BBC Scotland - Copyright BBC Scotland)