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Born | Bourg-en-Bresse, France | 24 July 1944||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 79 kg (174 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sport | Cycling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Daniel Morelon (born 24 July 1944) is a retired French racing cyclist who was active between 1963 and 1980. He is a triple Olympic champion, eight times world champion, [1] [2] and a knight of the Legion d'Honneur. Morelon was a police officer before becoming a cycling coach.
Morelon came into cycling after going to races with his two brothers. He said:
He joined the Vélo Club Bressan at 15. He won 11 races in the youth class and came second nine times out of 25 races. He came third in the national youth championship on the road and moved to the track after a training session in Paris.
Morelon was called up to the army in November 1963. He joined the national sports institute, INSEP, and began training at an international level.
Morelon and Trentin were matched for the bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964. Trentin was unsettled by his disqualification against the Italian, Pettenela, in the semi-final and lost to Morelon after forcing him to a third ride. [5]
The opposition between Trentin and Morelon continued until 1966. Trentin specialised in the kilometre, taking the world championship in 1966. Morelon took the sprint championship. The two then combined to ride the tandem sprint. Trentin said: "I'm the second fastest in the sprint and the fastest in the kilometre. Who's going to beat us on a tandem?" [6]
Morelon took the world title the following year, again ahead of Trentin, but despite Trentin's confidence they failed in the tandem final.
The 1968 Olympic Games were at altitude in Mexico. Trentin, suffering from the height, saw Morelon record the best kilometre time in training. The team manager, Louis Gérardin, nevertheless named Trentin for the event and he won in a world record. Two days later, Morelon easily won the sprint against Giordano Turrini. Two days later, Trentin and Morelon won the tandem. [1]
Morelon took his third world title in 1969 and a silver on the tandem. He repeated the performance in 1970, but with Gérard Quintyn as tandem partner. Trentin and Morelon teamed up again for the tandem in 1971, and took the bronze. Morelon won his fifth sprint title. [2]
Morelon was favourite at his third Olympic Games. He disposed of the Australian John Nicholson in two rides, although the second needed a photo-finish. Morelon took further world titles in 1973 and 1975. [1] [2]
At his fourth Olympics, in Montreal, Morelon faced the unknown Slovak Anton Tkáč in the final. He lost the first round after leading but being passed on the line. He won the second and was outridden in the third. The Slovak tried a long sprint, longer than Morelon could believe. "I couldn't believe that he was serious," Morelon said. "I was too far back. I didn't realise what was happening until I was beaten. I told myself there was still a lap and I couldn't believe that it was over." [6] Morelon took the silver, his fifth medal in four Olympics.
Georges Decoeudres, of the Tribune de Lausanne, wrote:
Morelon stopped racing in 1977 and succeeded Gérardin as national coach. [8] In 1980, though, he returned as a professional and took the bronze medal in the sprint and silver in the keirin, as well as winning the European sprint championship. He had previously said: "If I turn professional, I would no longer be able to devote myself exclusively to the sprint, because international matches are rare. Well, I want to stay a sprinter." [9] He was given time off by the sports ministry, his employer as national coach, to train. He told journalists: "Look, you mustn't go away and write that Daniel Morelon, the old champion, is going to fall out of the clouds and run off with all the big prizes. But you can say that, provided I can prepare properly, I will play a more than prominent role in the way the races develop." [10]
In 1990, he became head of the training centre at Hyères, on a new track. A rivalry started between Hyères and the northern training centre in Paris. There, Florian Rousseau was coached by Gérard Quintyn while Morelon trained Laurent Gané at Hyères. The result was a golden age of French sprinting, with all the world championships from 1997 to 2001 and the Olympic Games in 2000.
The revival started with the arrival of Frédéric Magné, Colas and Denys Lemyre, who had been world sprint champion with the juniors. Setting up two centres of training brought a rivalry. After the fall of the Berlin Wall Gérard went to Germany to find papers on training. [11] We worked more on muscle-building, made our sessions more methodical, so we had training sessions for speed and others for strength and endurance. But we also worked out our own programme, both Gérard and I adding our personal touches. We also had the luck to fall on an exceptional generation: Magné, Florian Rousseau, Félicia Ballanger Gané. It was a golden generation for French track racing. [3]
Morelon reached retirement age after the 2005 Olympics in Los Angeles and both he and Quintyn retired. Italy recruited him but in March 2007 he chose to work with China. "My job is to look after Guo Shuang", he said. "The Chinese federation has invested a lot in her." He took Shuang to two silver medals in the sprint and keirin at world championships but without the same success at the Beijing Olympics.
Rather than move to China, Morelon brought his best riders to train in France. [12] He said it would be his last competition. [13]
France competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. 227 competitors, 197 men and 30 women, took part in 132 events in 18 sports.
France competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 206 competitors, 177 men and 29 women, took part in 128 events in 18 sports.
France competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. 138 competitors, 118 men and 20 women, took part in 89 events in 14 sports.
France competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. 200 competitors, 169 men and 31 women, took part in 107 events in 16 sports.
Mickaël Bourgain is a French track cyclist, who won a bronze medal in the men's team sprint race at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens together with Laurent Gané and Arnaud Tournant, and a bronze medal in the men's individual sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Félicia Ballanger is a retired French racing cyclist.
Pierre Trentin is a retired French cyclist who was active between 1961 and 1984. He was most successful in sprint track events, in which he won two gold and two bronze Olympic medals, as well as 11 medals at world championships. His only road title was junior champion of France in 1961. He won most of his tandem titles with Daniel Morelon, who was also his major rival in the individual sprint races.
The men's sprint was a track cycling event held as part of the Cycling at the 1964 Summer Olympics programme. It was held on 17 and 18 October 1964 at the Hachioji Velodrome. 39 cyclists from 22 nations competed. Nations were limited to two cyclists each. The event was won by Giovanni Pettenella of Italy, the nation's second consecutive and fourth overall victory in the men's sprint. Sergio Bianchetto took silver, making it the second consecutive Games in which Italy had two men on the podium in the event. It was also the fifth straight Games with Italy taking at least silver. Daniel Morelon of France took bronze, the first of his record four medals in the event.
The men's sprint at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, was held from 21 to 24 July 1976. There were 25 participants from 25 nations. Following the explosion in size of the event from 1960 to 1972 when nations were allowed two cyclists each, the limit was again reduced to one competitor from each nation. The event was won by Anton Tkáč of Czechoslovakia, the nation's first medal in the men's sprint. Tkáč beat two-time defending champion Daniel Morelon of France in the final; Morelon's silver was a (still-standing record fourth medal in the event. Jürgen Geschke earned bronze to give East Germany its first medal in the event and the first medal for any German cyclist since 1952.
Anton Tkáč was a Slovak track cyclist who claimed the gold medal for Czechoslovakia in the men's Match Sprint event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada when in the final he defeated eight-time World Champion Frenchman Daniel Morelon. In this discipline he also won two World titles, in 1974 in Montreal and in 1978 in Munich, Germany.
Florian Rousseau is a former French track cyclist who won three gold medals and one silver at the Summer Olympics. He was popular among spectators for the facial expressions he pulled - many of them seeming to make his eyes bulge - to help him concentrate at the start of races. In retirement he became one of France's national sprint coaches.
Albert Richter was a German cyclist who won the world sprint championship. He was taken from a train by the Gestapo and never seen alive again.
Grégory Baugé is a French professional racing cyclist.
Sandie Clair is a French professional racing cyclist and bobsledder. She won her first title in 2005 in the national junior sprint championship. It qualified her for the European junior championship in Fiorenzuola, where she won the sprint and rode the keirin and 500m time trial. She came third in the junior world 500m championship a month later.
Lucien Michard was a French racing cyclist and Olympic track champion. He won four successive world championships and lost a fifth even though he crossed the line first. He won a gold medal in the sprint at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Michaël D'Almeida is a French track cyclist. He specialises in track sprint events including the sprint, team sprint, keirin and 1 kilometer. He has ridden for the Union sportive de Créteil cycling club since 2006. D'Almeida is married and has children, he is involved with the French armed forces.
Neil Michael Fachie is a Scottish cyclist and former track athlete, competing in events for people with a visual impairment. Fachie has competed in two Paralympics, as a sprinter in the 2008 Games in Beijing and as a tandem cyclist in London 2012. In London he won the gold medal in the Men's individual 1 km time trial and silver in the individual sprint, both with Barney Storey as his sighted pilot. Outside of the Paralympic Games, Fachie is a nineteen-time world champion and 5 times Commonwealth Games champion, creating tandem partnerships with Barney Storey, Pete Mitchell, and Olympians Craig MacLean and Matt Rotherham.
The men's sprint was a cycling event held at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, held on 18 to 19 October 1968. There were 47 participants from 28 nations. Each nation was limited to two cyclists. The event was won by Daniel Morelon of France, his second consecutive medal and first gold; it was also France's world-leading sixth victory in the men's sprint. His countryman Pierre Trentin, who had lost the bronze medal match to Morelon four years earlier, this year won it against Omar Pkhakadze of the Soviet Union. Between the French cyclists was silver medalist Giordano Turrini of Italy, extending that nation's streak of top-two results in the event to six Games.
The men's sprint event at the 1980 Summer Olympics took place on 23–26 July 1980 in Krylatskoye Sports Complex Velodrome. There were 15 competitors from 15 nations, with three additional non-starters. The event was won by Lutz Heßlich of East Germany, the nation's first victory in the men's sprint. Yavé Cahard took silver, extending France's medal streak to five Games despite the retirement of Daniel Morelon. Sergei Kopylov of the host Soviet Union earned bronze.
France competed at the 1963 Mediterranean Games in Naples, Italy.
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