Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #111 - Marianne Vos

Marianne Vos

Netherlands

Road/Track Cycling

Overall Ranks

#5 among Road Cyclists

#2 among Dutch Olympians

#1 among Dutch Cyclists

#1 among Female Cyclists

Olympic Results

2008

Points Race - Gold

2012

Road Race - Gold

2024

Road Race - Silver

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 2

Silver - 1

Marianne Vos was born on May 13, 1987 in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, and began racing bicycles when she was 6 years old, tagging along with her older brother. She was allowed to train with her brother's team, but was not allowed to compete because she was too young at the time, but as soon as she turned 8, she joined the races as well, and when she was 15, she won her first national championship.

She is primarily a road cyclist, but in 2008 she qualified for the Beijing Olympics in both road and track cycling. In the road race, two dozen riders remained together until the last lap, when 5 riders broke away from the pack. Vos remained with the main pack, and was the first of the pursuers to cross the finish line, getting her a 6th place finish. The individual time trial was next, held on the same course as the road race, but consisting of a single timed lap by each rider. Vos finished near the middle of the 25 riders, just over 2 minutes behind the gold medal time. 

Next, she competed in the track cycling points race, where she was the current world champion. The race consists of 100 laps of the track, with every 10th lap being a sprint, where the first 4 finishers are awarded points, and the racer with the most points at the end winning gold. She won the first sprint, and by the halfway point was solidly in the lead. She held back during the 6th sprint lap, then took advantage of her tired opponents to take off ahead of the field, lapping everyone, which earned her 20 points, which was equivalent to winning 4 sprints. After that, she only needed to finish the race to earn gold.

She fractured her collarbone during a race in May 2012, two months before the Olympics, and took over a month off to recover, then competed in the Dutch Olympic trials to make the road racing team. She had been the runner-up at the last 5 world championships in road racing, but was considered the favorite in London.

The pack all stayed together through the first 100km of the race, but with 40km to go, a Russian rider attempted to break away from the pack. Vos and two other riders followed, creating a breakaway pack of 4 riders. The American punctured a tire soon afterward, and the three leaders were left to compete for the medals. As the finish closed in, Vos and Lizzie Armitstead of Great Britain pulled slightly ahead and sprinted for the finish, with Vos winning by a nose, and the majority of the racers coming across the line 27 seconds later. Vos now had a gold medal in each of her cycling disciplines.

She competed in the time trial a few days later, but finished in the middle of the pack, just like 4 years earlier. She took some time off in 2015 and 2016, but returned to compete in the 2016 Olympic road race, but this time, she fell behind the first two packs of riders, and ended up finishing 9th, more than a minute behind the winner.

She competed again in 2020, which saw 5 riders break away from the pack only 2 km into the race, which was rare. Vos stayed with the main pack, which eventually fell more than 10 minutes behind the leaders. With 40km left, a rider from Austria broke away from the leaders and built a huge lead, while Vos and the rest of the pack caught up with the others breakaway riders. In the end, Vos ended up in 5th place, her 4th straight top 10 finish in the event in the Olympics.

She raced in her 5th Olympics in 2024, again just in the road race. With 22 km remaining, she was one of 3 riders to break away from the pack, one of which dropped back to the pack at the next big climb. Two other riders caught up soon afterward, and the four remained together until 3 km remained, at which point Kristen Faulkner of the USA pulled away from the others, who were unable to match pace, leaving 3 riders to fight for 2 medals. All three were even at the final sprint, but Vos was ahead by a tire at the finish, giving her a silver medal.

Vos is still actively competing in cycling events, and given her history of always finishing near the top in road races, there is no reason to believe that she won't continue to compete for Olympic medals, but what she has done so far has already made her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #131 - Chris Hoy

Chris Hoy

Great Britain

Track Cycling

Overall Ranks

#3 among British Olympians

#2 among Track Cyclists

Olympic Results

2000

Team Sprint - Silver

2004

Individual Time Trial - Gold

2008

Sprint - Gold

Keirin - Gold

Team Sprint - Gold

2012

Keirin - Gold

Team Sprint - Gold

Total

Events - 9

Gold - 6

Silver - 1

Christopher Andrew Hoy was born on March 23, 1976 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was inspired to begin cycling after seeing the film E.T., and he began competing in BMX racing starting from age 7. By the time he was 14, he was the #2 ranked BMX racer in Britain.

He made the switch to track cycling in 1990, and after winning his first World Championship medal, a silver in team sprint, in 1999, he was selected for the 2000 Olympic team. His first event, the Keirin, didn't go well, as he lost in the first round, but the team sprint went much better. The event involves two teams of three riders on opposite sides of the track, racing to finish 3 laps first, with each rider leading one of the laps. The Brits won a close race over Australia in qualifying, then beat Slovakia by more than a second to advance to the gold medal race, but the favored French set an Olympic record to defeat Great Britain and leave them with the silver.

After 2000, Hoy decided to focus on the Individual Time Trial, and he won the World Championship in that event in both 2002 and 2004, making him one of the favorites heading to Athens in 2004, along with world record holder Arnaud Tournant of France. Hoy was the last to race, and the Olympic record had been broken 3 times already that day, but Hoy started fast and stayed ahead of the pace the whole way, winning the gold medal by 0.18 seconds over Tournant.

The Individual Time Trial was removed from the Olympics after 2004, so he wasn't able to defend his title, but he switched successfully to other sprint events and had his best Olympic performance in 2008. He started off in the team sprint, where his team had the best time in qualifying, then beat the USA by more than 2 seconds in the semifinals, before beating the French in the gold medal race, avenging their loss 8 years earlier.

Up next was the Keirin, where an electronic bike paces the racers for 3 quarters of the race, gradually picking up speed as it goes, before leaving the track while the racers sprint to the finish. Hoy was the defending world champ, and he didn't disappoint in the final race, as he took the lead immediately after the pace bike left and pulled away from the rest of the racers to win another gold.

His final event was the Individual Sprint, where he was also the defending world champion. Most rounds were contested as a best of 3, and after posting the best time in qualifying, Hoy won every single race in every round, culminating in a 2-0 win over countryman Jason Kenny in the gold medal round. In doing so, he became the first British man to win 3 gold medals in the same Olympics since 1904.

When the Olympics went to London in 2012, Hoy was favored to win both of his events in front of a home crowd. He and Kenny were back to defend their team sprint title, and after setting the best time in qualifying, they set world records in the semifinals and the finals to take the gold again.

His final event was the Keirin, where he had won 4 recent World Championships and was the defending Olympic champion. When the pace rider left the track, the Malaysian rider sprinted out to the lead right at first, but was quickly caught by Hoy, who led most of the rest of the way, only being briefly passed by Maximillian Levy of Germany with just over a lap to go before taking the inside track and pulling away.

He retired from racing in 2013, and since retirement has started his own bike brand, and has been an announcer for cycling events on BBC. He also announced in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, and that he had between 2 and 4 years to live. As of today, he is still alive, and his 6 gold medals spread over 3 Olympics makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.