Leontien van Moorsel

Who is Leontien van Moorsel?

Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel is a Dutch retired racing cyclist.

Van Moorsel started her career in the late 1980s. 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, and on the track. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she fell in the penultimate lap of the road race, but successfully defended her time trial title. Her four gold medals tie her for the most ever by a Dutch athlete at the Olympics.

She holds the world hour record for women of 46.065 km, set in 2003 in Mexico City.

Van Moorsel retired from professional cycling after the 2004 Olympics.