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Gold for a Manxman at the Olympics
Steven LynchAugust 2, 2014
Who's the only Manxman to win an Olympic cycling gold medal? asked Matthew Bell.
The kneejerk reaction here is to say Mark Cavendish - the "Manx Missile" - but actually Cavendish has never won an Olympic medal, famously being the only member of the men's track team to miss out on one in Beijing in 2008.
In fact the only Manxman to win Olympic gold on a bike is Peter Kennaugh, part of the British pursuit team at London 2012, alongside Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas. Kennaugh was born in Douglas on the Isle of Man in 1989.
Cavendish, who has won three cycling world titles, did win the gold medal in the scratch race in the 2006 Commonwealth Games for the Isle of Man. He was born in Douglas in 1985.
The only other Manxman to win Olympic gold was Sidney Swann, part of the victorious British rowing eight at the Stockholm Games of 1912. Eight years later, in Antwerp, the British eight - again including Swann - were just pipped for gold by the Americans.
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