Gordon Singleton was a Canadian world-record holding track cyclist.
42 Facts About Gordon Singleton
1.
2.
Gordon Singleton competed and won gold medals in the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games, and the 1979 Puerto Rico Pan Am Games for Canada.
3.
Gordon Singleton was inducted into the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame in October 2015 along with some of his teammates from the 1970s and 1980s.
4.
Geoffrey Gordon Singleton, was born on August 9,1956 in Niagara Falls, Ontario to William and Betty Singleton.
5.
Gordon Singleton's father William was a businessman and owned Niagara Tire and Battery Ltd.
6.
At age 13, Gordon first came to public attention, in April 1970, when he was featured in an article about newspaper carriers for the local news outlet, The Niagara Falls Review.
7.
Gordon Singleton was noticed by the St Catharine's Cycling Club's president Colin Heath, who invited him to join the club and became Singleton's first cycling coach.
8.
Gordon Singleton beat Toronto's Gino Greco to win first place.
9.
Gordon Singleton met his eventual coach and mentor, Eddie Soens, on that trip.
10.
Gordon Singleton represented Canada at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico.
11.
Gordon Singleton was able to sufficiently recover to take part in some races but did not win a medal.
12.
At age 19, Gordon Singleton represented Canada at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
13.
Gordon Singleton took on Jocelyn Lovell in the best of three sprint final.
14.
But, Gordon Singleton won the second race forcing the unexpected third race.
15.
The Ontario pursuit team, anchored by both Lovell and Gordon Singleton, took the gold medal for the second year in a row.
16.
Gordon Singleton would continue to rise in the international rankings, and would again represent Canada in 1978, this time at the Commonwealth Games held in Edmonton.
17.
Gordon Singleton posted a time of 1:07.56 that was good enough for second at that point.
18.
Gordon Singleton followed up his bronze performance by teaming up with Lovell in the Tandem Sprint.
19.
When Gordon Singleton came back from the games, his flight landed at Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
20.
Gordon Singleton was met by Buffalo Police officers and they gave him an escort to the border, where he was met by Niagara Regional Police and whisked to Niagara Square to be greeted by over 500 admirers.
21.
Gordon Singleton was experimenting with a higher gear ratio, which made his time slower than at Coamo, with a winning time of 1:08.46.
22.
Gordon Singleton was a member of Ontario's four-man 4000-metre Senior Pursuit Team.
23.
Gordon Singleton had a strong race and finished second to defending world champion, Lothar Thoms of East Germany.
24.
Gordon Singleton pushed Czech cyclist Ivan Kucirek, during the race as they approached the finish line.
25.
Also, at another point Gordon Singleton fell because of dew forming on the paint of an advertisement on the track surface.
26.
Finally, after the race was restarted for a third time, Gordon Singleton got a flat tire.
27.
Gordon Singleton called the disqualification "political" when interviewed in the Niagara Falls Review a few weeks after the championships.
28.
However, the final corner was judged by someone from Czechoslovakia, and Gordon Singleton alleged that this was the judge that disqualified him.
29.
Gordon Singleton was runner-up to skier Ken Read for the 1979 Sports Federation of Canada amateur athlete awards.
30.
Gordon Singleton received his first nomination for the Lionel Conacher Award as Canada's top male athlete of the year.
31.
Gordon Singleton was nominated that year for the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's best athlete, losing out to Jacques Villeneuve.
32.
Gordon Singleton won best athlete of the year honours for the province of Ontario.
33.
In 1980, at the height of his career, Gordon Singleton was the second-ranked sprint cyclist in the world, and one of the favourites for the gold medals at that year's summer Olympics.
34.
However, when the Canadians joined the American-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics, due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Gordon Singleton was deprived of competing in his second Olympics.
35.
Gordon Singleton was the first, and remains the only, cyclist in history to simultaneously hold records in these three distances, For the second year in a row, he was nominated for the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's best athlete.
36.
Gordon Singleton lost out to long-distance runner and cancer fundraiser Terry Fox.
37.
The collision was controversial, as it was unclear who initiated the contact, although Gordon Singleton always maintained that it was Nakano who collided with him.
38.
Gordon Singleton was nominated again for the 1982 Lou Marsh Award as Canada's best athlete.
39.
Gordon Singleton was triumphant in his return to the World Masters event in 1998, where he was a double Gold Medal winner, in the sprint and 750 metre time trial.
40.
Post-career, Gordon Singleton was honoured many times during his remaining lifetime.
41.
Gordon Singleton was honoured again by his hometown, when he represented the City of Niagara Falls during the 2010 Olympic Torch run for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
42.
Gordon Singleton was inducted into the Hall on October 10,2015, with the ceremony held at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario.