He is one of only five fencers to compete at at least six Olympic Games. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he was part of the British silver-medal winning épée team
Number British fencer has won an Olympic medal since. He competed with all three weapons (doing so in the 1956 and 1964 Olympics) but he was especially effective at Épée, where he was 1958 World Champion. He was eight times British champion, winning at least once at each weapon - a feat no one, including his great rival, Allan Jay, ever matched. During the time (1950 to 1970) that fencing was a sport at the Commonwealth Games, Hoskyns won nine gold (four individual) and one silver medal. Individually, he won gold in both épée and sabre in 1958, gold in épée and silver in foil 1966, gold in Épée in 1970. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Hoskyns won silver in the épée, losing to Soviet fencer Grigory Kriss in the final.