_in_ak%25E2%2580%25A6%2c_Bestanddeelnr_920-6974.jpg) Yvonne Reynders in 1967 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Yvonne Reynders | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1937-08-04)4 August 1937 (age 88) Schaerbeek,Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Discipline | Road and track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Yvonne Reynders (born 4 August 1937) is a former track and roadcyclist fromBelgium. WithBeryl Burton of Great Britain, Reynders was one of the top female riders of the 1960s, winning 13 medals at world championships, including seven gold medals.[1]
Reynders' first sport wasathletics: her heroine was Dutch athleteFanny Blankers-Koen, who won four sprint golds at the1948 Summer Olympics. However, after her coaches told her that she did not have the speed on the track to follow in Blankers-Koen's footsteps, she initially switched to the discus, winning two consecutive Belgian junior discus titles in 1955 and 1956. Reynders then switched to cycle racing, having ridden acarrier tricycle when delivering coal inAntwerp after leaving school at the age of 16. In order to lose the muscle mass she had built up as a discus thrower, she developed a weekday routine of riding her race bike 40 km from her home in theCampine to Antwerp, where she did her 8–16 km coal round on her carrier trike in the morning, and then riding another 100–140 km on her racing bicycle along theScheldt valley before returning home. After six months her weight had reduced from 74 kg to 59.5 kg. She subsequently won ten of the 14 races she entered in her first year, and earned selection to the Belgian national team.[2]
Reynders won her first world road title in1959. In1961 she won her second, defeating Burton andElsy Jacobs, and also won the world individual pursuit titlethe same year.[2] She won two more road world titles, in1963 on home ground in the Belgian city ofRonse, and in1966 at theNürburgring inWest Germany, and another two track rainbow jerseys, in1964 and1965. She initially retired from competition in 1967, however she returned to racing in 1976 at the age of 39: she took her final world championship medal, a bronze, at that year'sRoad World Championships. She retired a second time the following year.[3]
Reynders is apedicure specialist.[4]
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