Queen’s honor list adds Bradley Wiggins, Ben Ainslie after triumphant Olympics
Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky leads teammate Mark Cavendish around the Arc de Triomphe during the final stage of the 2012 Tour de France on July 22, 2012, in Paris.
Call him Sir Bradley Wiggins now after Buckingham Palace announced an annual New Year’s honors list today that’s heavy with Olympic medal winners.
Wiggins became the first Brit to win cycling’s Tour de France before capturing his fourth Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Summer Games just a few days later.
Queen Elizabeth II will also knight Ben Ainslie, the most decorated Olympic sailor with gold medals at four consecutive Games, British Cycling director David Brailsford and David Tanner, performance director for British Rowing.
Among the non-sporting winners are fashion designer Stella McCartney and physicist Peter Higgs.
McCartney – daughter of legendary Beatle Paul – designed the uniforms for the British Olympic team at its triumphant third turn hosting the Games.
She will receive an Order of the British Empire.
Higgs, 82, often gets much publicity for the so-called “God particle,” but he’s among six physicists generally recognized for their work explaining “why the most basic building blocks of the universe have mass,” BBC reported.
Work at the Large Hadron Collider earlier this year lent proof to the theory behind the Higgs boson, the idea of which was conceived in the 1960s.
Higgs will receive a “Companion of Honor” from Buckingham Palace and is likely to gain consideration for a Nobel Prize next year.
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