The New Year's Honours List in full: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic heroes can add a haul of gongs to their gold medals after recognition in the New Year's Honours List for their record-breaking efforts at the Beijing Games. More than 50 athletes, coaches and team officials involved in the best performance by a Great Britain team for nearly a century are today among the 966 people celebrated for their services to the nation.

Chris Hoy, 32, the Scottish cyclist who won three gold medals in the velodrome in Beijing, earns a knighthood for a career that started when he rode in BMX competitions as a seven-year-old inspired by Steven Spielberg’s film ET. “To become a knight from riding your bike, it’s mad. But it is, genuinely, just an amazing honour and also great for the sport,” he said.

His joy was shared by his mother, Carol, 61, a senior nurse at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh until her retirement this year, who is rewarded with an MBE for her work on sleep-related illnesses. Honours are proving a family tradition. Her own mother, Isa Reid, was appointed MBE in 1989 for her work as chairman of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Sir Chris, named BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2008, leads the charge of the stand-out British cycling team, which won seven out of a possible ten indoor track gold medals in Beijing and one on the road.

Nicole Cooke, 25, who began the gold rush when she won her road race event, is appointed MBE alongside fellow Olympic cyclists Ed Clancy, 23, Geraint Thomas, 22, Jason Kenny, 20, Jamie Staff, 35, Paul Manning, 34, Victoria Pendleton, 28, and Rebecca Romero, 28, who won a silver in rowing in Athens 2004.

Bradley Wiggins, 28, who retained his Olympic individual pursuit title, adds a CBE to his OBE. Dave Brailsford, the cycling performance director who masterminded the team’s unprecedented success, receives a CBE on top of his MBE.

Other Olympic feats are rewarded. The most notable is an MBE for Eleanor Simmonds, the Welsh swimmer born with dwarfism, who was Britain’s youngest Paralympic gold medallist at the age of 13 and is now, a year older, the first minor to be honoured.

Rebecca Adlington, 19, the double Olympic champion from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, is appointed OBE for her achievements in the pool.

MBEs go to Tim Brabants, 31, who won Britain’s first canoeing gold medal, middleweight boxer James DeGale, 22, who recently turned professional after winning gold in Beijing, and Christine Ohuruogu, 24, who rebounded from a one-year ban for missing drug tests to become the Olympic women’s 400m champion.

Britain’s dominance of the waves is recognised with a CBE for Ben Ainslie, 31, who has won sailing gold medals at three successive Games.

Sarah Ayton, 28, and Sarah Webb, 31, two thirds of the Yngling “blondes in a boat” crew, are appointed OBEs for defending their Olympic title, while there is an MBE for their teammate Pippa Wilson, 22, for her first gold medal. Other Olympic champion sailors appointed MBEs are Paul Goodison, 31, Andrew Simpson, 32, and Iain Percy. Stephen Park, the team manager, becomes OBE.

Further excellence on the water by the rowing team earns David Tanner, the performance director, a CBE and there are MBEs for Zac Purchase, 22, Mark Hunter, 30, Andy Triggs-Hodge, 29, Tom James, 24, and Peter Reed, 27, while Steve Williams, 32, who is expected to retire before London 2012, is appointed OBE.

Among the Paralympians, CBEs go to the Welsh swimmer David Roberts, 28, who equalled Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson’s career record of 11 gold medals and horse rider Lee Pearson, 34, who won three golds in Beijing. Philip Lane, chief executive of Paralympics GB, is OBE.

Adlington said of her honour: “It’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.” Simmonds, who becomes the youngest-ever recipient of MBE regalia, said: “The last three months have been a whirlwind and, while feeling as though I am living a fairy tale, I want to work hard to keep my feet on the ground and refocus my efforts on my training and my schoolwork so that by 2012 I can hopefully repay in part the wonderful accolades and affection that I have received.”

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