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by Graeme Atkinson (1984)
When nineteen years old Tony Marchant won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics, two thousand adults and school children turned out in the streets to welcome him on his return to his home suburb of Chelsea in Melbourne, Victoria.
Marchant was given a suitable presentation on the steps of the Chelsea Town Hall and shyly spoke about thirty words of thanks in what was one of the more unpolished speeches ever heard at the town hall.
Marchant had shot into cycling prominence only the year before when he won the Australian junior championships in the 500 meters time trial and the five mile after finishing second in the mile.
The following year, Marchant teamed with the experienced lan Browne for the - 2000 tandem in the national titles and the pair won the event thus ensuring their selection for the Olympic Games.
By sheer good fortune, (see Browne, lan), the Australian pair came through the repechage at the games to down Czechoslovakia in the final and take a surprise gold medal.
Although Browne represented his country at the Olympics again in 1960 and 1964, Marchant, after the Melbourne games, did not remain in the amateur ranks for long. He turned professional when still under twenty-one years of age, his first major win being a victory in the Latrobe (Tasmania) Wheel Race, riding off sixty yards. In 1959, he contested the first twenty-four hour teams cycling event ever held in Australia, the £675 Astor 24. In 1960 he beat Italian star, Tino Oriani, in the Australian Natives Association Wheel Race in Melbourne. The race had a spectacular finish in which Marchant suffered a broken wrist when riders crashed after passing the finishing line.
Although he competed in Europe with pleasing results, Marchant was not a tremendous success in professional cycling and dropped out of the sport in the mid 1960s.
From Australian & New Zealand Olympians: The Stories of 100 Great Champions, Graeme Atkinson The Malvern Star tandem ridden to the Gold Medal by Ian Browne and Tony Marchant is now on public display at the Olympic Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ó Rolf Lunsmann, 2000 How you can help Feedback
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