Hoy willing to cut events to ensure Olympic Gold

British track star Chris Hoy has said that he will ride in fewer events in the London 2012 Olympics to ensure that he wins gold. He would rather bring home one gold medal than three silver or bronze, he said.

Hoy won three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, in the Sprint, Keirin and Team Sprint, and one gold in the Kilometre at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

The 33-year-old expects London to be his final Olympic appearance, and he would like to defend all three of his gold medals. However, he will not do so until he is sure of winning.

"It's a risk and something you have to be aware of but I wouldn't be entering a race unless I had the belief I was going to win it," Hoy said Tuesday, according to the AFP. "It's still quite a long time to the Olympics and anything can happen.

"At the moment, I plan to go for all three and it'd be lovely to defend all three titles but I wouldn't risk losing a gold medal for the sake of having three bronzes or three silvers.

"It's about winning gold medals and I'd rather have one gold medal than three silvers."

The International Cycling Union (UCI) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) have changed the line-up of track events for London, to make things more equal for male and female riders. “It's great news” for fellow Briton Victoria Pendleton, Hoy said. She will go for gold in two of the events added for women, as well as attempting to defend her sprint gold.

"It's something she's been outspoken about and quite rightly so, to try and get the parity between men and women,” he said.

But the news was not so good for others in the British program, whose events have been scrapped. "I can really empathise with people like Rebecca Romero, Bradley Wiggins, Steven Burke, Wendy Houvenaghel, Olympic medallists in events which are not going to be there in two-and-a half-years time,” Hoy said.