Portrait of Leontien van Moorsel

Birthday profile

Leontien van Moorsel

Leontien van Moorsel, Dutch cyclist

Born
March 22, 1970
Age in 2026
56
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1970

About Leontien van Moorsel

Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel (born 22 March 1970) is a Dutch retired racing cyclist. She was a dominant cyclist in the 1990s and early 2000s, winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games and holding the hour record for women from 2003 until 2015. == Career == At the age of eight, she competed in her first cycling race. She made her Tour Féminin debut in 1989 at the age of 19, finishing 31st overall. She went on to win the Tour Féminin twice in the first half of the 1990s, establishing a notable rivalry with Jeannie Longo. Van Moorsel dropped out of cycling in 1994 with anorexia nervosa but recovered to compete at the World Championships in 1998, winning the time trial and coming second in the road race. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, van Moorsel won gold medals on the road (road race and time trial), and on the track (3 km pursuit). She became the first female Olympian in history to win gold medals in two separate disciplines at the same Olympic games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she fell in the penultimate lap of the road race and was stretchered off and taken to the hospital by ambulance, but nevertheless successfully defended her time trial title two days later. She set a new world hour record for women of 46.065 km, in 2003 in Mexico City, which was not improved upon for almost 12 years, when UCI rule changes prompted a new succession of attempts.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Leontien van Moorsel timeline

  1. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, van Moorsel won gold medals on the road (road race and time trial), and on the track (3 km pursuit).
  2. She was a dominant cyclist in the 1990s and early 2000s, winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games and holding the hour record for women from 2003 until 2015.

The world when Leontien van Moorsel was born

Leontien van Moorsel was born in 1970. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1970

  • #1 song"Bridge over Troubled Water" – Simon & Garfunkel
  • Top moviePatton
  • Top TV showMarcus Welby, M.D.
  • Best-selling bookLove Story – Erich Segal

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentPelé leads Brazil to 3rd World Cup title in Mexico
  • Top headlineThe Beatles officially break up
  • Technology milestoneFloppy disk invented by IBM
  • Defining fadBell-bottom pants
  • Notable inventionFloppy disk
  • World population3.70 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderRichard Nixon
  • Sports championBaltimore Orioles (World Series)
  • Also wonNew York Knicks (NBA)
  • U.S. population205.1M

1970 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Leontien van Moorsel's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19702026
Gas$0.36$3.45/gal
Average home$17,000$435,000
Average income$11,400$67,500
Minimum wage$1.60$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$1.55$11.95
Postage stamp$0.06$0.73
Population205.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, International Olympic Committee, Olympedia. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.