Leontien van Moorsel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Leontien van Moorsel

Leontien van Moorsel in 1991
Personal information
Full name	Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel
Born	(1970-03-22) 22 March 1970 (age 54) Boekel, Netherlands
Team information
Discipline	Road & track
Role	Rider
Major wins
Stage races Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale (1992, 1993) Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin (1991) Emakumeen Bira (2000) Trophée d'Or Féminin (2000) One day races & classics Olympic Road Champion (2000) Olympic Time Trial Champion (2000, 2004) World Road Champion (1991, 1993) World Time Trial Champion (1998, 1999) National Road Champion (1998–2000, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999) National Time Trial Champion (1997, 1998–2002)

Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel (born 22 March 1970) is a Dutch retired racing cyclist. She was a dominant cyclist in the 1990s and early 2000s, winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games and holding the hour record for women from 2003 until 2015.

Career

Leontien van Moorsel at the 2018 Women's Amstel Gold Race.

Van Moorsel started her career in 1977. She won major races both on the track, and on the road. In the first half of the 1990s, she won the Tour Féminin twice, after fierce competition with Jeannie Longo.

Van Moorsel dropped out of cycling in 1994 with anorexia nervosa but recovered to compete at the World Championships in 1998, winning the time trial and coming second in the road race.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, van Moorsel won gold medals on the road (road race and time trial), and on the track (3 km pursuit). At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she fell in the penultimate lap of the road race and was stretchered off and taken to the hospital by ambulance, but nevertheless successfully defended her time trial title two days later.

She set a new world hour record for women of 46.065 km, in 2003 in Mexico City, which was not improved upon for almost 12 years, when UCI rule changes prompted a new succession of attempts.

Van Moorsel retired from professional cycling after the 2004 Olympics.

In 2017 Van Moorsel became director of the Women's Amstel Gold Race.

In September 2017, Van Moorsel was accused by sports physician Peter Janssen of using EPO in 2000 and 2001.

Major results

Personal life

Van Moorsel married former track cyclist Michael Zijlaard in October 1995. They have a daughter.

See also

In Spanish: Leontien van Moorsel para niños

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games