Jocelyn Lovell

Considered one of Canada’s first cycling icons, Lovell, born in Norfolk, England, competed at three Olympic Games. He made the 1968 Olympic team in Mexico City while still a teenager and finished a respectable 7th in the 1,000m time trial. His arrival on the Canadian cycling scene and international success was greatly welcomed after a four decades medal drought in his country. His victory in the 10-mile scratch race at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh made him the first Canadian in 36 years to win a cycling gold.

Lovell dominated the Canadian cycling scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He was three-times Commonwealth Games champion (on home soil in Edmonton in 1978), a 1978 World Championships silver medalist (1000 m time trial in Munich), a two-time Pan American Games champion (1971 and 1975 1000 m time trial), and won more than 35 national titles (on road and track, at every distance). Lovell was introduced to the sport by his brother Peer, who was at one time a Canadian champion as well. His successes were all the more remarkable because he trained himself, never working with a personal coach.

His ability to cycle was tragically cut short in 1983 at the age of 33 while out on a training ride northwest of Toronto, when he was run over from behind by a dump truck and dragged over 1000 feet, leaving him a quadriplegic. With a reputation as a controversial and outspoken individual as a cyclist, Lovell emerged as a high-profile spokesman for the disabled after his accident.

Lovell was married to three-time Olympic speed skater Sylvia Burka in 1981, who was also a competitive cyclist, separating in 1986. In 1975, Lovell received the Norton H. Crow Award, as the Canadian male amateur athlete of the year, and in 1985, he was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.