Mark French (cyclist)

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Mark French (born October 13, 1984 in Melbourne ) is a former Australian track cyclist .

Cycling career

In 2001, Mark French was double world champion in the sprint and team sprint junior division with Jason Niblett and Kial Stewart , a success that he repeated the following year with the sprint and keirin world championships. In 2003 he was Australian champion in the elite keirin and fourth in the team sprint at the World Track Championships in Stuttgart , with Ryan Bayley and Jobie Dajka . At the Oceania Games in 2006, French won two gold medals, in the keirin and in the sprint.

2007 Mark French was Australian champion in the team sprint, with Joel Leonard and Shane Perkins and runner-up in the sprint; at the track world championships in Palma in the same year he was tenth in the sprint. In 2008 he won three national titles, in the sprint, keirin and team sprint, with Shane Kelly and Shane Perkins and was fifth in the team sprint at the World Track Championships , with Daniel Ellis and Ben Kersten . In the same year he started at the Olympic Games in Beijing , was fourth in the team sprint (with Daniel Ellis, Ryan Bayley and Shane Kelly) and 13th in the sprint. He then resigned from active cycling.

Doping affair

In 2004, Mark French was involved in a doping affair when vials of growth hormone were found in his room at the Australian Institute of Sport . At a hearing, he accused fellow sportsmen Shane Kelly, Sean Eadie , Jobie Dajka and Graeme Brown of doping, but protested his own innocence. They would have injected themselves in his room. French received a two-year ban that prevented him at the Olympic Games in Athens to start. Besides him, only Dajka was punished for false testimony by being removed from the Olympic squad. In 2005, French was acquitted by the International Court of Sports (CAS) and his suspension lifted.

In December 2008, a court awarded Mark French $ 350,000 in compensation. The sum had to be paid to him by the radio station "Triple M" because the station's moderators called him because of his testimony in the doping affair and the accusation of other racing drivers as dirty, stinking, dobbing cyclist (English = dirty, stinking, pissing cyclist ) and referred to as "un-Australian". In March 2010, the Australian newspaper The Herald and Weekly Times had to pay Australian $ 175,000 to French for similar reasons.

Honors

In 2003, Mark French was named Victorian Cyclist of the Year after winning Australia's Junior Cyclist of the Year in 2001 and 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Australian cycling rocked by drugs claims on independent.co.uk v. 19 June 2004 (Engl.)
  2. ^ French ban overturned on appeal on news.bbc.co.uk v. July 12, 2005 (Engl.)
  3. ↑ Dobbing is an Australian slang expression.
  4. ↑ Cycling Mark French in legal win on heraldsun.com.au v. December 1, 2008 (Engl.)
  5. ↑ Cyclist Mark French wins defamation payout on theage.com.au v. 27 April 2010 (Engl.)
  6. ↑ vic.cycling.org.au ( Memento from March 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ cycling.org.au ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Web links
personal data
SURNAME French, Mark
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian track cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne