The campaign to save Meadowbank from closure was quick off the mark. In Beijing Hoy gave the campaign maximum impetus when he said he would not be standing on the podium but for the velodrome being in Edinburgh.

The campaign to save Meadowbank from closure was quick off the mark, timing the launch of a video yesterday to coincide with Hoy's third Olympic victory, while in Beijing Hoy gave the campaign maximum impetus when he said he would not be standing on the podium but for the velodrome being in Edinburgh.

Minutes after the third gold medal was hung around his neck, Hoy said: "I would not be standing here with three Olympic medals around my neck if Meadowbank Velodrome did not exist in the first place.

"Who knows how many potential Olympic athletes are out there? Yes, we are getting one in Glasgow, but why are they knocking down facilities, why not have two or three or four. It's about getting kids on bikes and kids into sport. It would be a real shame for the whole of Scotland, not just Edinburgh, if we lost the Meadowbank Velodrome and didn't have a replacement."

The video has his full backing. Scotland's most successful Olympian of all time learned his craft on this track, yet, in the face of thousands of objections, Edinburgh Council plans to demolish the velodrome, and the neighbouring athletics stadium and sports centre. The intention is to replace it with a reduced complex which will leave many of its current users, including cycling, in limbo. In the video, Hoy says: "Elite sport cannot stand alone without local facilities giving kids the chance to get into the sport in the first place. I really hope Edinburgh is going to continue to produce world champion cyclists in the future, but we cannot do this without a local facility."

Mark Barry, director of youth racing in Manchester where Hoy now trains, added: "This is a track that has been absolutely fundamental in the success of the Great Britain cycling team. Most of our world, Olympic and European champions have come from here."

The video highlights the lack of proper investment since the Meadowbank track was built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games, and the absence of a roof, which causes countless events to be rained off every year.

Allister Watson, director of Scottish Cycling, made a telling comparison between Scotland's top medal-winning sports: "Cycling is Scotland's second most successful Commonwealth Games sport. The most successful is swimming. I wonder how our swimmers would get on if there was only one swimming pool for the country, and it was outside."

Kevin Connor, the Save Meadowbank spokesman, welcomed the video. He said: "Chris Hoy is a great role model and proof of what Meadowbank has helped achieve. Imperfect facilities are better than no facilities at all. Edinburgh Council claim they are being forced to radically downscale Meadowbank purely on financial grounds. If that is the case, we call upon the Scottish Government to provide them with adequate funding."