Tony Marchant (cyclist)
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Tony Marchant | ||||||||||||
| Nickname | Tippy | ||||||||||||
| Born |
28 August 1937 Chelsea, Victoria, Australia |
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| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb) | ||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||
| Discipline | Track | ||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||
| Rider type | Sprinter | ||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Tony Marchant, also known as "Tippy" Marchant (born 28 August 1937) is a former Australian track cyclist who along with Ian Browne won the 2000 m tandem event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Marchant had little formal training and only took up the sport at the age of 16 because his friends liked the sport. In 1955, Marchant shot to prominence after only two years in the sport, winning the 500 m time trial and the 5 mile event at the Junior Australian Championships. This resulted him being approached by Browne to team up in early 1956 and they promptly won the tandem event at the national championships to earn national selection. The pair were eliminated after losing their first two races but were given a reprieve when the Soviet Union pair were hospitalised in a crash and forced to withdraw. Thereafter Marchant and Browne were unbeaten and progressed to an unlikely Olympic gold. In 1957, Marchant retired to play Australian rules football, again basing his decision on his friends' interests. In 1958 he made a brief comeback as a professional, but with only sporadic success, he retired in 1961.
Marchant was born in Chelsea, Victoria, where he grew up. His father was a member of the Royal Australian Navy, who later became a bank manager. His father died when Marchant was young. This left his mother, a nurse, to raise Marchant and his four sisters and three brothers. Unlike his siblings, Marchant was interested in sport from a young age. He particularly took a liking to boxing, and won the school boxing championship at St Bede's Christian Brothers College. In his teenage years, he fought about 25 bouts with the Chelsea Youth Club.
Influenced by three of his friends, Marchant took up cycling in 1953 at the age of 16. He earned some money from selling flowers and delivering newspapers and bought a semi-racing bike. Later, he was a given a proper racing bike from his first trainer Merv Norton.
Marchant began at the Chelsea Amateur Cycling Club, which did not even have a banked cycling track and was trained by Norton and Maurie Cramer. Marchant rose to prominence by winning the 500 metres (m) time trial at the 1955 Victorian Championships for juniors in only his second year of competition. He then won the 5 mile title and the 500 m time trial at the Australian Junior Championships. He added a silver medal in the sprint.
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