Charles Vanoni was a native of New York but spent much of his early life in Europe and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, while he was accompanying his mother, Marie, a concert and nightclub singer, as she toured Europe. While in Europe he competed in distance running and as a cyclist, reportedly winning over 1,000 bike races and 200 foot races. He raced as a cyclist in South America, New York, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and Africa, winning national titles in South America in 1901 and Switzerland in 1905. He finished his cycling career from 1906-09 riding in six-days in New York and Boston, his best finish being third in 1908 at Boston. He also raced as a jockey in Europe, winning 125 races in France. Vanoni married his wife, Lena, in Switzerland in 1917, and they settled in Reno, Nevada in 1929, where they operated a restaurant at the Washow County Golf Course until 1948. They later ran a grocery store until he retired in 1951.
United States