Kanellos Kanellopoulos

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Kanellos Kanellopoulos ( Greek Κανέλλος Κανελλόπουλος ; born April 25, 1957 in Vrachneika , today Patras ) is 14 times Greek champion in cycling and extreme sports .

Life

Daedalus in flight, 1988

He began his racing career at the age of 14 with the purchase of his first racing bike and completed over 500 races. In 1984 he took part in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He was thrown out of the race by a tragic fall. Kanellopoulos currently lives in Athens.

In 1985 Kanellopoulos was selected as one of five racing cyclists for the Daedalus project. After extensive training, on April 23, 1988, at the age of 30, he flew in the pedal-powered Daedalus muscle power aircraft from a Greek air force base in Heraklion on Crete , accompanied by several small boats, at low altitude to Santorin , an island north of Crete.

Like other well-trained racing cyclists, the 72 kg heavy Kanellopoulos had an exceptional ability to process oxygen. To ensure his performance, he drank about four liters of a glucose-mineral mixed drink specially developed for this flight, which he sucked in through a plastic tube.

After 3:54:59 hours and a flight of 115 kilometers at an average speed of 29 kilometers per hour, he had reached Santorini . The pilot set a previously unsurpassed world record for the duration and distance covered by a muscle-powered aircraft. As Kanellopoulos wanted to make landing at the black beach of Perissa in Santorini, against the wind, a detected squall from the aircraft and ripped the tail and a wing. The pilot was able to free himself from the wreck. He had to swim the remaining 30 meters on land.

Kanellopoulos later said: “The nicest thing was actually the start.” The rest was hard work, seven meters above the sea surface. The effort required for the record flight corresponded to that of two consecutive marathons. In 1988 Kanellopoulos received the Harmon Trophy for this record flight , an American award for outstanding flying performance.

Cycling

Kanellos Kanellopoulos won championship titles in cycling in road races , individual time trials , team time trials and on the track in the individual pursuit . He also won the road race for the Balkans Championship in 1982 and the Tour of Greece in 1981. He started several times in both road races and team time trials at the UCI Road World Championships . In 1984 he was a participant in the Summer Olympics in Los Angelos , but retired in the road race.

literature

  • Langford et al .: The Feasibility of A Human-powered Flight Between Crete and the Mainland of Greece . MIT Department of Aeronautics / National Air & Space Museum, April 1986.
  • JS Langford: The Triumph of Daedalus . In: National Geographic . August 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 9/1988 . Berlin, S. 4 .
personal data
SURNAME Kanellopoulos, Kanellos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Κανελλόπουλος, Κανέλλος (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek cyclist and extreme athlete
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Vrachneika , Patras