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by Graeme Atkinson (1984)
When Australia's champion cyclist, Russell Mockridge, made a last minute appearance at Helsinki to compete in the 1952 Olympic Games, he was surprised to find that his partner in the 2000 metres tandem event was Sydney's unknown Lionel Cox, a cyclist who had never taken part in a tandem event in his life! Nevertheless, the pair combined as if they had ridden together for years and a week later cycled to a gold medal, in the final.
Born in Brisbane, Queensland, but living in Sydney from the time he was fifteen years old, Cox, after having received his first bike when he was seven, had always remained interested in cycling.
When he was fifteen, he joined the Marrickville Cycling Club as a junior, but raced without any success and had so many falls that his mother insisted that he give the sport away until 'he had some more sense'. She allowed him to resume again two years later, giving him a new racing cycle for his seventeenth birthday. On it, Cox won every race he contested as a junior, including the state junior sprint title. In 1948, he entered senior ranks, won the New South Wales sprint crown, came second in the Australian mile title and fourth in the sprint.
In December the following year, defeat by Mockridge in the national sprint title cost him the Empire Games selection and he rested during the 1950 road season to save himself for a big effort in the 1950-51 track season. His tactics paid off when he won both state and national mile titles, but was beaten into third place in the national sprint.
The following year he went through the New South Wales track season without a single defeat, beating Mockridge in the St. George Grand Prix. However, the Victorian turned the tables on him in the state mile test for the national titles in Adelaide. When the Olympic team for Helsinki was named, Cox was number six on the priority list for the cycling team and his chances of actually making the trip appeared to be almost nil.
However, victories in the sprint and mile and a dead heat in the time trial at the state championships convinced many experts that, with overseas experience, he could be a champion and the New South Wales Amateur Cyclists' Union launched a fund to raise his expenses for the Helsinki trip: Cox's workmates at the Sydney Fruit Market gave generously, the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland Cycling Associations put in and Cox and his mother made up more than half of the £800 required.
In Helsinki, Mockridge and Cox found that neither owned a tandem cycle, nor had one been provided, so they hastily arranged to have one flown in, finding to their disgust that it was only a semi racer. They had time only for three practice circuits around the Helsinki Velodrome before contesting their Olympic heat, but swept aside a Hungarian pair, then beat the Danes by a tyre in the quarter final and thrashed the Italians in the semi final.
Against the favoured South African pair in the final, the Australians bounded to the front at the gun, matched their opponents' every move and kept them high on the track, forcing them to come home around the bankings. The tactics were successful and Mockridge and Cox took the gold medal by inches.
Cox had just finished a round of sprints before the tandem final. He went on to make the final of the event, recording 11.3, the fastest time of the entire series, in his semi final win. But world champion, Sacchi (Italy) and German champion, Potzerheim, wary of Cox's superior speed, prevented him from using it in the final by taking the lead at the start and cycling slowly and warily to the back straight. On the final banking, Sacchi moved up abreast of the German, presenting Cox with the prospect of going three wide if he wanted to attack them. Sacchi held his position until the last possible moment, then flashed away Cox tore after him at a terrific pace, overhauled the German, but could not make up the two length gap in the last straight, losing to Sacchi by a wheel.
After the games, Cox raced with startling success on the European circuit.
From Australian & New Zealand Olympians: The Stories of 100 Great Champions, Graeme Atkinson Ó Rolf Lunsmann, 2000 How you can help Feedback
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