ONE of Australia's Olympics veterans, Lionel Cox, died of pneumonia at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney last night.
The 79-year-old, born in Brisbane, won a gold medal for the 2000-metre tandem event during the 1952 Olympics after he and partner Russell Mockridge trained for just a week.
Even more amazing, Cox had never even ridden a tandem bike before the one-week training.
Their bike had been discarded by the British team and brought from London to Helsinki by Mockridge.
Cox also won silver in the 100m cycle sprint in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, after finishing half a wheel behind Italian Enzo Sacchi.
Cox was a larrikan in his youth whose good mates at the Sydney fruit markets held fundraising raffles to help foot the cost of his Olympics airfare.
His mother also took out a mortgage on her cottage to help with the fares.
After the Games, Cox rode successfully on the European circuit, and later took on coaching.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/b ... 5838928725
This is indeed sad news.