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| Amy Gillett, 1976-2005 |
Today would have been the birthday of Amy Gillett, who was born in Adelaide in 1976. Originally a world-class rower, Amy had been identified as a track and road cyclist with enormous potential and was predicted to win medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Tragically, on the 18th of July in 2005, she was killed in Germany when a driver lost control of his car and ploughed into a group of cyclists with whom she was training. Five of her team mates were seriously injured, two sufficiently so that it was thought they also might die. Amy was 29 when she died and was studying for a PhD. She had been married for less than a year and a half.
The Amy Gillett Foundation was set up in her honour, an organisation that aims to cut cyclist fatalities on the road to zero by encouraging safer cycling and increasing awareness of cyclists among other road users as well as funding two scholarships per annum, one to a young female athlete and one to a researcher whose work will assist in reducing cyclist deaths on the roads. You can learn more about their work here.
Happy birthday to Mat "The Condor" Hoffman, born on this day in 1972. Mat is widely renowned as one of the best vert BMX riders the world has ever seen, breaking world records and inventing new tricks for many years and in doing o developing, promoting and driving the sport. He is also the owner and founder of the famous Hoffman BMX brand.
Happy birthday to Yoanka González, 2004 World Scratch Race Champion, born in Cuba in 1976.
Happy birthday to Emanuele Sella, the Italian cyclist born in 1981.
Other cyclists born on this day: Mette Anderson (Denmark, 1974); János Dévai (Hungary, 1940); Mariano Friedick (USA, 1975); José Gómez (Spain, 1944); Verena Jooß (Germany, 1979); Maxim Belkov (USSR, 1985); Michael Markussen (Denmark, 1955); Kyoshi Miura (Japan, 1961); Janusz Sałach (Poland, 1957); Volodymyr Semenets (USSR, 1950); Jason Donald (USA, 1980); David Bernabeu (Spain, 1978).
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