Sir Chris Hoy says he has no regrets about announcing his retirement before the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The Edinburgh-born cyclist, who announced his retirement in April, said competing at the Games would have been a step too far.
The velodrome that will be used during the Games has been named after the Scot, who won six Olympic gold medals during his career. However, Hoy, who is a figurehead for the Glasgow Games, has no regrets about not competing at the venue.
Click here to watch Sir Chris Hoy's triumphant return to the Olympic Stadium.
He said: "It would have been lovely to do it but there are no regrets.
"Ultimately it was not a decision I made consciously - your body can essentially only keep going at that level for so long.
"The recovery you need when you are coming back from injury also takes longer and longer the older you get.
"It was good that I could hang on until I was 36 and still win an Olympic gold because that was beyond what a lot of people thought was possible.
"Glasgow 2014 would have been one step too far.
"You could not turn up with anything other than 100% form and expect to leave with a medal. I could probably have still been 95% but the difference between first and second place, never mind first and sixth, is fractions of a second.
"Coming in just five per cent off my best would have been a long way off the gold medal and I did not want to take that opportunity from an up-and-coming young athlete."
Retirement for Britain's greatest Olympic champion has been so busy that he has not missed his life as a top athlete.
In fact, the biggest sporting worry for the sprint cycling champion is squeezing in time to get back on his bike.
Hoy likes to "stick in a good hour a day" of riding or gym work to keep himself ticking over. It also stops him from becoming a self-confessed "grump".
"I am probably riding about three or four times a week. If I don't do something for more than a couple of days I get grumpy and lethargic," Sir Chris said, speaking at Olympic Park almost a year on from London 2012.
"I think it just shows that I am going to be riding my bike for the rest of my life.
"Cycling is just one of these sports that you can do until you are an old person."
Like most sports people Sir Chris, now aged 37, has left his sport at a time when most people would still have years in their careers.
His new life is hectic and very different to what he has been used to.
"I literally have not had the time to contemplate not being an athlete," Sir Chris said.
"Every day there is something on, which is great because it is exciting and different, but there is no routine.
"I have come from a life where it is very regimented and you know exactly what you are doing and when you are doing it to now knowing where you are going but somehow everything is all over the place.
"One day is very different to the next. There is a lot of things now which are one-offs."
His workload includes creating his own bike range, mentoring the Scottish winter Olympic team and "hopefully the Rio team as well," an advisory board role for Scottish rugby and being an ambassador for the RAF air cadets. He is also doing some motor racing.
He was an ambassador for Glasgow's failed bid to host the Youth Olympics and is a figurehead for the city's 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The two titles he won at London 2012 made him Britain's most medalled Olympic athlete, ahead of five-time rowing champion Sir Steve Redgrave, and brought his competitive career to a golden end.
"People talk about Sir Steve Redgrave when he retired having to 'de-train' but I suppose that is because he cannot hop into a boat every day of his life and go for a row," Sir Chris said.
"Cycling is good for you. My joints are not taking a pounding and that is why I am so keen on encouraging people to get involved."
The health of British cycling, a year after the London Olympics, is "just amazing", according to Sir Chris.
In a feat that would have been unbelievable just a few years ago, Britain is poised for its second consecutive Tour de France victory.
Chris Froome is in position to repeat Sir Bradley Wiggins' historic victory last year as the first Briton to win the Tour de France.
Sir Chris predicted "it is looking good for him (Froome)" to win the Tour.
"It is a golden era for cycling but then it seems that we have been saying that for the past ten years," he notes.
"Hopefully it means the interest in cycling is at an all-time high. It is showing no signs of plateauing yet."
On a personal level he has sensed a fresh attitude to fitness and competition as a result of London 2012.
He said: "For me the biggest legacy, even more than the Olympic Park and the facilities, is the attitude and belief that this whole generation of young people now have that they can succeed and be champions like the people they watched in the Games last year."
Sir Chris has opted out of taking part in the five-mile National Lottery Anniversary Run at London's Olympic Stadium on July 21. Instead, he is the official starter for the 12,500 runners.
"Somebody has to start it and I have taken that responsibility very seriously," he joked.
"It is a huge honour to start it and it gives me a great excuse not to show everybody my lack of running ability in front of thousands of people."
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