An 82-year-old member of the 1948 Belgian cycling team has finally received his Olympic gold medal.
Eugene van Roosbroeck was presented with his Olympic gold medal by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge after van Roosbroeck brought it to the attention of the Belgian Olympic Committee that he had never received the medal. Van Roosbroeck was a member of the top-finishing Olympic cycling team in at the 1948 Olympics in London, but because officials took so long to tally results, van Roosbroeck and his teammates figured they had not won a medal, he told The Times Newspaper in London.
"It was complete chaos after the race — there was no ceremony or stage to collect the medals," van Roosbroeck told Ed Hula of Aroundtherings.com. "After the event we jumped on the double-decker bus back to the barracks that served as the Olympic Village. A day later I was back in Belgium. It was only afterwards that we heard we were the best team. None of us thought that there was a medal awarded for the team event."
Belgium Cycling Wins Olympic Gold in 1948
Van Roosbroeck was a member of the three-man Belgium cycling team made up of himself, Lode Wouters, who finished third in the 1948 cycling event, and Leon Delathouwer, who finished fourth in the event. van Roosbroeck finished ninth, and combined, the finished were enough for the Belgium cycling team to win the gold medal in the cycling team event.
It wasn't until recently, however, that van Roosbroeck decided to try to claim his Olympic gold medal when van Roosbroeck heard a story about a 1960 Olympic skipper who received copies of two of his medals from Rogge. The skipper's Olympic medals had been replaced by Rogge after they were lost in a house fire, according to aroundtherings.com. van Roosbroeck wrote to the Belgian Olympic Committee, and before too long, van Roosbroeck received word that he, too, would have his medal awarded to him.
http://news.suite101.com/article.cfm/belgium-cycling-team-member-receives-olympic-medal-after-62-years-a246853
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