Leigh Barczewski

Leigh Barczewski

To person
Full name	Leigh Francis Barczewski
Nickname	The Tree
Date of birth	December 25, 1955
nation	United States
discipline	train
End of career	1980
Most important successes
UCI track world championships 1978 - tandem
Last updated: May 12, 2020

Leigh Francis Barczewski (born December 25, 1955 in Milwaukee ) is a former American track cyclist who specialized in the short-term disciplines.

Athletic career

Leigh Barczewski began his sporting career as a speed skater before switching to cycling at the age of 14. At the UCI-Bahn World Championships for Juniors in 1973 he was fourth in the sprint , and fourth in the national championship of the elite the following year. In 1976 he was the first American sprint champion . He was able to repeat this title win three times in a row until 1979. In 1978 he started at the World Championships in Munich and together with Jerry Ash won the silver medal in a tandem race ; after a fall, the two riders could not finish the final for gold.

In 1976, Barczewski took part in the Olympic Games in Montreal in the sprint and finished last. On May 4, 1980, he and Dave Grylls set a new world speed record of 62.92 miles in a three-wheeled Velomobile Vector at the Ontario Motor Speedway . In the same year he retired from active cycling and worked in various functions at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center . His son Ben was also active as a cyclist.

In 2016, Leigh Barczewski was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame .

successes

1976

• American champion - sprint

1977

• American champion - sprint

1978

• World Championship - Tandem (with Jerry Ash )
• American champion - sprint

1979

• American champion - sprint

literature

• Sandra Wright Sutherland: No Brakes! Bicycle Track Racing in the United States . Iris, Encinitas, Ca., S. 270 ff .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Joffre Nye: Hearts of Lions. U of Nebraska Press, 2020, ISBN 1496219317 p. 437 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 2016 USBHOF Inductee Leigh Barczewski on YouTube , January 19, 2017
3. ↑ Kirsten Frattini: Morton and Holden to be inducted into US Bicycling Hall of Fame. In: cyclingnews.com. July 19, 2016, accessed May 12, 2020 .