Tommy Godwin (cyclist, born 1920)

Godwin was born in Connecticut, United States to British parents in 1920. The family returned to Britain in 1932. His first bicycle was a Wrenson's delivery bike which he used to run errands for a local grocer. He became interested in cycling because of the 1936 Summer Olympics. Arie van Vliet's riding in the 1,000-metre time-trial inspired him; British amateur champion W. W. Maxfield was also an early hero. Godwin began racing three years later and rode the fastest 1,000m of the season at the Alexander Sports Ground. He was invited to trials in the Midlands to find riders for the next Olympics, despite not yet having won a race. He won a 1,000m at The Butts track in Coventry on 29 July 1939. His chances of Olympic selection ended with the Second World War. He envied Reg Harris and Dave Ricketts for being selected for the world championship at a young age, "not that I had any claims to such honors but because their good fortune provided them with expert tuition and decent tracks for training. In the Midlands, this all seemed so far away." Godwin was an apprentice electrician in a reserved occupation during the war, working for BSA. But there was little competitive cycling and he rode at only 13 meetings between 1940 and the end of 1942. The change in war fortunes meant more sport in Britain from 1943. Godwin was unbeaten in five-mile scratch events and won the Cattlow Trophy at Fallowfield, Manchester, that year and in 1944. In the national championship of 1944, at which Harris made his breakthrough, Godwin won the five-mile. He repeated this success in 1945, adding the 25-mile title which he retained in 1946. In 1949 he won the 4000 metres event. He won the BSA Gold Column, offered by his employers, by winning the five-mile at Herne Hill in south London in 1945. ==Post-war competition==

The win at Herne Hill, the first time he had ridden there, "must have impressed, for an invitation to ride in Paris came my way," he said in the British weekly, The Bicycle. "Being the first international test after cessation of hostilities it was indeed a great honour." He came third in the 1,000m at the 1950 British Empire Games. ==Career after racing==

Godwin managed the British cycling team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, became president of the British Cycling Federation and the Solihull Cycling Club. He ran the first British training camp in Majorca, Spain, He was Britain's first paid national coach His autobiography ''It Wasn't That Easy: The Tommy Godwin Story'' was published in 2007 by John Pinkerton Memorial Publishing Fund. He was president of Solihull Cycling Club. His wife, Eileen, died on 5 January 2011. ==2012 Summer Olympics==

Godwin was an ambassador for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On 27 July 2010 he appeared on the BBC One programme "London 2012: Two Years to Go", praising the new velodrome taking shape. He was interviewed by BBC presenter Sophie Raworth and showed his two Olympic bronze medals. When aged 91 he was selected to participate in the Olympic Torch relay, to carry it on a 300-metre leg through Solihull on 1 July 2012. Godwin died at the Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull on 3 November 2012. ==References==