Thursday, 21 November 2024

Greg LeMond

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Athletes 2024
Embed from Getty Images
Sport(s): Cycling
Statistics: 3 Tour de France Wins (1986, 1988 & 1990)
1 Tour de l’Avenir Win (1982)
1 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré Win (1983)
2 World Road Race World Championships (1983 & 1989)
Member of the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame
Europeans had always dominated the sport of cycling, that was until Greg LeMond changed the sport.

LeMond had already made noise in the U.S., but he proved he arrived on the international scene when he won the Tour de l’Avenir in 1982, becoming the first non-European and American to win. The next year, LeMond won the World Road Race Championship and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, and he was ready to a player in the premier race in cycling, the Tour de France.

LeMond first competed in the Tour de France in 1984, where he was third, and he finished second in 1985. He broke through in 1986, winning the Tour de France and planting America’s flag on the sport of cycling.

LeMond missed the 1987 Tour de France due to a shooting accident where 60 shotgun pellets went into his back and right side, and he was lucky to have survived. He recovered but had other injuries that took him out of the 1988 Tour. LeMond came back in 1989, and he won that and the 1990 Tour de France, with the 1989 win coming on the last stage.

In 1989, Sports Illustrated named LeMond their Sportsman of the Year, the first time that a cyclist earned that honor, proving that cycling had become an American sport.

LeMond is considered one of the greatest cyclists in American history, and historically, he is a large part of the sport's growth in the United States.

We are proud to nominate Greg LeMond for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.

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