Józef Lange

Józef Lange

To person
Date of birth	March 16, 1897
date of death	August 11, 1972
nation	Poland
discipline	Railway (endurance / short term) / road
End of career	circa 1930
Societies)
	WTC Warszawa / Legia Warszawa
Most important successes
Olympic games 1924 - team pursuit
Last updated: October 17, 2018

Józef Lange (born March 16, 1897 in Warsaw ; † August 11, 1972 there ) was a Polish cyclist . At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 he won the first Olympic medal for Poles in cycling with the Polish foursome.

Athletic career

Józef Lange was a trained tanner and worked in his family's business. In the 1920s, the small, petite driver was considered the most versatile cyclist of his country and was a celebrated local hero on the cycling track of Dynasy (Warsaw). He started for the Legia Warsaw club . In 1921 he became Polish road champion and national runner-up in the sprint on the track. In 1924 he started in two disciplines at the Olympic Games in Paris: In the team pursuit , he won the silver medal in the team pursuit together with Tomasz Stankiewicz , Jan Łazarski and Franciszek Szymczyk after the Polish four-man lost eight seconds in the final to the favored Italian team. This was the first Olympic medal in cycling for Poland. Lange also started in the 50 km race on the track; He was ahead of his competitors up to 200 meters from the finish, but ended up only in fifth place.

Four years later, Lange again took part in the Olympic Games . In Amsterdam he played the team pursuit (with Alfred Reul , Jan Zybert and Józef Oksiutycz ), this time the Polish four was eliminated in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands. In the 1000 meter time trial he finished sixth with 1:18 minutes. After the games he continued to race, now as a stalker . In the 1930s it still held 15 out of 21 national records - now no longer active.

Józef Lange ran his family's tannery until the end of his life, and he was known for breeding pigeons. He died in his hometown of Warsaw in 1972 at the age of 75. His grave is in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

successes

1921

• Polish amateur champion - road racing

1924

• Olympic Games - Team Pursuit (with Jan Łazarski , Franciszek Szymczyk and Tomasz Stankiewicz )

Web links

Commons : Józef Lange  - Collection of Images

• Józef Lange in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Józef Lange in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Paweł Tomczyk: 120 lat temu urodził się Józef Lange, kolarz, pierwszy polski medalista olimpijski. In: dzieje.pl. Retrieved October 17, 2018 (Polish). 
2. ↑ Tomasz Stankiewicz - pierwszy polski olimpijczyk. (No longer available online.) In: instytutpileckiego.pl. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018 ; Retrieved October 16, 2018 (Polish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.