Roger Bannister RIP was a genuine amateur. Who was the last at his level
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Who were the last genuine amateurs to break world records or win Olympic medals
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Obree was as close to an amateur as you could get for his achievements when him and Boardman were going at it in that glorious summer of 1993. He was basically doing everything off his own bat with a couple of low level sponsors covering expenses.
Boardman was amateur in name only, he rode for North Wirral Velo (a specially created team featuring strong riders from Merseyside and the North West) who had funding from those well known small businesses Reebok and Kodak. He didn't have much support from the British Cycling Federation though, it was pre-velodrome, pre-lottery funding, pre-medal targets and they barely had a pot to piss in at the time - indeed it was often said his achievements were down to having the right people around him (Peter Keen, Peter Woodworth) rather than the system.
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- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
Here's a recent world record set by an amateur, though given that the record is "youngest to achieve X" it kind of has to be an amateur:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/43160815
Still, mightily impressive.
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