Nelson Vails
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| Nelson Vails (2007) | |
| To person | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Cheetah |
| Date of birth | October 13, 1960 |
| nation |
 United States
|
| discipline | train |
| Most important successes | |
|
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| Last updated: May 9, 2020 | |
Nelson Beasley Vails (born October 13, 1960 in New York City ) is a former American track cyclist .
Athletic career
Nelson Vails was the youngest of ten children in a family in Harlem . He got his first bike at the age of six and - according to his own words - became “bike crazy”. He later worked as a bicycle courier and earned the nickname Cheetah for moving smoothly like a big cat through the traffic jungle of New York. At the same time he drove bike races; he practiced in Central Park .
In 1983 Vails started at the Pan American Games in Caracas and won the gold medal in the sprint . The following year he became the American amateur sprint champion , competed at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and won the silver medal in the sprint, behind his compatriot Mark Gorski . This made him the first African American to win an Olympic medal in cycling. At the UCI track world championships in 1985 in Bassano del Grappa , he was runner- up in the tandem race , together with Leslie Barczewski . In 1984 and 1985 he was national tandem champion with Barczewski, and in 1986 with Scott Berryman .
Professional
Since retiring from cycling in 1994, Vails has worked as a television cycling commentator. In 1986 he played a bicycle courier with Kevin Bacon in the movie Quicksilver .
successes
- 1983
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Pan American Champion - Sprint
- 1984
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American champion - sprint, tandem with ( Leslie Barczewski ) -
Olympic Games - Sprint
- 1985
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World Championship - Tandem (with Leslie Barczewski ) -
American champion - tandem with ( Leslie Barczewski )
- 1986
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American Champion - tandem with ( Scott Berryman )
Web links
- Nelson Vails in the database of Radsportseiten.net
- Nelson Vails in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Fastest Cat: Nelson Vails on billcotton.com ( Memento from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Nelson Vails on usbhof.org
- Personal website
Individual evidence
- ↑ You Can Own Raleigh's Limited-Edition Track Bike Commemorating Nelson Vails. In: bicycling.com. June 10, 2019, accessed May 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Sandra Wright Sutherland: No Brakes! Bicycle Track Racing in the United States . Iris, Encinitas, Ca., S. 270 ff .
1889-1892 Willie Windle | 1894 Arthur Augustus Zimmerman | 1895–1897 Eddie-Christian Bald | 1898 Tom Butler | 1899 Tom Cooper | 1900 Major Taylor | 1901–1916, 1918, 1921 Frank Kramer | 1919 Ray Eaton | 1917, 1920 Arthur Spencer | 1922, 1923, 1926 William Spencer | 1924 Adison Spencer | 1925, 1928, 1929 Freddie Spencer | 1926 Bart Bowen | 1927 Harris Horder | 1930–1932 Cecil Walker | 1933 George Dempsey | 1934–1936 Willie Honeman | 1937 Mathias Engel | 1938 Albert Sellinger | 1939 George Shipman | 1940 Mike Francoise | 1941 Tom Saetta | 1965, 1967 Jack Simes | 1966, 1968 Jack Disney | 1969 Tim Mountford | 1970 Skip Cutting | 1971, 1972 Gary Campbell | 1973 Roger Young | 1974, 1975 Steve Woznick | 1976–1979 Leigh Barczewski | 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985 Mark Gorski | 1981 Les Barczewski | 1984 Nelson Vails | 1986, 1987 Scott Berryman | 1988-1992 Ken Carpenter | 1993, 1999-2001 Marty Nothstein | 2003, 2005 Stephen Alfred | 2004, 2007 Michael Blatchford | 2006 Gideon Massie | 2008 James Davis Watkins | 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Matthew Baranoski | 2016 David Espinoza | 2017, 2019 James Mellen | 2018 Sandor Delgado
The results are not complete.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vails, Nelson |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vails, Nelson Beasley (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American track cyclist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |