OLYMPIC gold medallist Chris Hoy today refused to back a call by actor Sir Sean Connery for a separate Scottish Olympic team.
The triple gold medal winner has already been quoted as describing a Scottish team – an idea favoured by First Minister Alex Salmond – as
"ridiculous".
The actor backed the idea today as he launched his memoirs on his 78th birthday.
The ex-Bond star told the Edinburgh Book Festival: "Scotland should always be a stand-alone nation at whatever, I believe."
But at a press conference later to mark the British Olympians' return, Hoy underlined his British and Scottish credentials.
"I have been very proud to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and that's something I will always cherish, and I will hopefully compete again in future years," he said.
"But today we are here to celebrate being a British team.
"Scotland is part of Britain, they are not mutually exclusive, I'm a proud Scot and I'm a very proud Brit as well."
He went on: "In terms of Scotland becoming an Olympic nation by itself, I think there needs to be a lot more investment in sport up there in terms of facilities again.
"But today is about the British team, really, and we are here to celebrate that."
Before he left Beijing, Hoy was said to have been far more critical of the idea of a separate Scottish team.
He told The Scotsman: "For him (Scottish sports minister Stewart Maxwell) to call for a Scottish Olympic team at this stage is ridiculous.
"I wouldn't have three gold medals hanging round my neck if I wasn't part of the British team.
"I'm a Scottish athlete in a British team and I'm proud to be a British athlete."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "As we invest in world class sports infrastructure to host Glasgow 2014 – including a new National Velodrome – and a lasting sporting legacy for the whole nation, we can also build up the level of Scotland's sporting ambitions for the future.
"We look forward to discussing all of these issues with Chris Hoy and Scotland's entire sporting community, so that we can build on the fantastic success that our athletes achieved in Beijing, and Melbourne in 2006."
The spokesman added: "We hear Chris's remarks about the sports facilities we have in Scotland at this stage, but as we prepare for Glasgow 2014 we are moving towards significantly better infrastructure which can form the basis of even higher Scottish ambitions for the future in relation to the Olympics and a Scottish team."
Meanwhile, a separate row raged on over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call for an all Britain football team at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has been approached to manage an all-Britain team.
But Alex Salmond has accused the Prime Minister of an "extraordinary blunder" which would jeopardise the future of the Scottish football team.
Labour leadership contender Cathy Jamieson today offered a compromise solution, in the form of a home nations football tournament whose winner would represent the UK at the Olympics.
She told BBC Radio Scotland the Scottish FA had "concerns" about a Team GB for football.
"The important thing here is that we do give people the opportunity to participate in the Olympics," she told Good Morning Scotland.
"But at the same time I don't think the majority of Scots would want to see the Scotland international team then be unable to compete anywhere else."
SNP MSP Michael Matheson insisted Mr Brown's call was a non-starter as the home nations had made clear they did not intent to participate.
While Fifa president Sepp Blatter previously sought to give reassurances to the home nations, these had not been accepted as Blatter could not tie the hands of future Fifa delegates, he said.
He also dismissed Ms Jamieson's suggestion for a play-off.
"That would be Scotland, England, Northern Ireland or Wales – it would not be a GB team," he said.
"So fundamentally, it does not work, and that is why it was dismissed at a very early stage some years ago."
The full article contains 692 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
