Born: 1 April 1974

Birthplace: Cecina

Nationality: Italy

Sport: Cycling

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Sydney 2000

Athens 2004

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 1

The golden cricket

Early in his cycling career, Paolo Bettini picked up the nickname El Grillo, "The Cricket," because he could not stay in a group and instead jumped ahead to attack the course. He made his Olympic debut in 2000, placing ninth in the road race. He improved to second at the 2001 World Championship in Lisbon and then won the overall World Cup in both 2002 and 2003.

Riding for the Quick.Step-Davitamon team, Bettini earned the International Cycling Union's (UCI) first place ranking for the year 2003. He entered the Athens Olympics as the favourite, but the road race was held in extreme heat and it was difficult to predict the outcome. In fact, 69 of the 144 starters did not finish the 224.4km race. Bettini pulled away from the peleton on the 15th of 17 laps, with only Sergio Paulinho of Portugal going with him. The two worked together until the final kilometre.

Bettini forced Paulinho to take the lead with 700m to go in order to have a better chance of controlling the final sprint. Bettini turned around to check the position of the group behind (they were not close) and when he turned back he discovered that Paulinho had risen from his saddle and begun his sprint. Bettini was able to catch Paulinho 200m from the finish and win by one second. Later in the season, Bettini earned his third straight World Cup title.