Russell Mockridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's cycling | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1952 Helsinki | 1000m time trial | |
| Gold | 1952 Helsinki | 2000m tandem | |
Russell Mockridge (born July 18, 1928 – died September 13, 1958) was a racing cyclist from Geelong, Victoria, Australia whose life was tragically ended during a race, in a collision with a bus in 1958.
Born in Melbourne, his cycling career started in 1946 by winning his first race of 40km with the Geelong Amateur Cycling Club. His reputation continued to grow and he became widely described as "Australia’s greatest all-round cyclist for all time". Due to his upper class accent he was initially dubbed Little Lord Fauntleroy, however his race wins soon earned him the nickname of The Geelong Flyer.
He participated in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London but two punctures ruined his performance in the road race, and his team was eliminated in the quarter finals of the 4000 metres team pursuit.
He represented Australia at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland. He took Gold in both the 1000 metre sprint and the 1000 metre time trial, and a Silver in the 4000 metre individual pursuit.
In Paris in July 1952 he won the Amateur Grand Prix and the following day won the Open Grand Prix (beating the world professional champion, Reg Harris), becoming the first rider to win both the amateur and professional divisions of the Paris Sprints. The humiliation to the professionals resulted in the rules of the race being changed and amateurs being barred for many years.
His selection for the 1952 Summer Olympics Australian team was in doubt as he refused to sign the Australian Olympic Federation’s fidelity bond, which demanded he remain amateur for at least two years after the Games. In the end, another great Australian cyclist, Hubert Opperman, or Oppy as he was known, (then Federal parliamentarian for Geelong), negotiated the bond being reduced to one year. At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki he went on to win two gold medals for Australia, in the tandem event with Lionel Cox, and in the 1000 metre time trial.
A year after the games he turned professional and raced with much success and critical acclaim on the European and Australian circuits. Mockridge teamed with Sid Patterson and Roger Arnold to win the Paris 6-Day Race in 1955, defeating the French favourites. Later that year Mockridge was one of the 60 riders out of 150 entrants to cross the line in Paris of the 1955 Tour de France. Up to his final year of cycle racing in 1958 he had twelve consecutive Australian championship wins.
In 1958, at the age of 30 while participating in the 225km Tour of Gippsland, he was killed by a bus in Melbourne at the Dandenong Rd / Clayton Rd intersection just 2.1 miles from the start of the race.
Russell Mockeridge was married and had one daughter, Melinda (1955).
