Leontien van Moorsel
Leontine Martha Henrica Petronella " Leontien " Zijlaard -van Moorsel ( born March 22, 1970 in Boekel, born Leontien van Moorsel ) is a former Dutch cyclist and four-time Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the Tinus or Ties. Van Moorsel is next to Jeannie Longo 's outstanding driver personality in women's cycling in the 1980s and 1990s.
Leontin van Moorsel started her career in the late 1980s. As early as 1990 she was in the 3000 m individual pursuit world champion in Japan Maebashi. 1991 and 1993 she became world champion in the road race. By further international success, including the Tour de France the women it rose to become one of the best women cyclists in the world. Your sports development appeared for a preliminary resignation mid-1990s has ended, especially since they also fell ill with anorexia nervosa. However Motivated by her husband, cyclist Michael Zijlaard, she decided later to start again with the cycling to overcome their illness and came after a long break even again in the competitive sport back.
In 2000, she was again the dominant cyclist of the Olympic Games in Sydney. There she won the 3000m pursuit race in the road race and the time trial three gold medals. In addition, she won a silver medal in the points race.
Between 2001 and 2003 she was three consecutive world champion in the 3,000 m individual pursuit. In 2003, she took the hour record its French rival, Jeannie Longo addressed and improved the old record by 916 meters to 46.349 km.
The 2004 Olympics in Athens began initially unpromising. In the road race on August 15, 2004, she crashed and retired. But just three days later, she sat in the individual time trial clearly against their competition and by the end won by over 24 seconds ahead of their fourth gold medal. In the 3,000 -meter individual pursuit, she was third.
Leontien van Moorsel was six times elected to the Netherlands for the Sportswoman of the Year. , 1990, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2004, after the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, she retired from active cycling.
Her father is the popular derny pacer Joop Zijlaard. Her niece, Nicky Zijlaard, had her first international success as a cyclist when she finished ninth in the time trial Junior Women at the UCI Road World Championships 2012 in Valkenburg, the Netherlands.
After Leontien Zijlaard -van Moorsel the run by her husband Michael Zijlaard UCI Women 's Team AA Drink- leontien.nl named.