James “Martin” Vinnicombe (born 5 December 1964) is an Australian former professional

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

who competed at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, winning a silver medal in time trial. He tested positive for

steroids A steroid is an organic compound with four fused rings (designated A, B, C, and D) arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter mem ...

in 1991, but accusations were overturned and Vinnicombe received $240,000 in compensation for false allegations in defamation. His former manager, Phill Bates, told the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' in 1996: "If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying." At 22 years of age, Vinnicombe won the world championship in time trial in 1987, being the first ever Australian to become world champion, He also won the silver medal three times (1986, 1989 and 1990) and the bronze medal once (1985). Vinnicombe has placed 9 times at the world championships in 1,000m time trial event. As part of the lead up to the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Vinnicombe had been selected to be in charge of coaching Chinese cyclists in the

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province, but in 2005 was banned from the country for four years and fined after one of his cyclists tested positive for steroids but was overturned and received compensation for false charges, Vinnicombe denied any wrongdoing. In 2012 he was offered to be in the cycling hall of fame.

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* * * 1964 births Living people Australian male cyclists Cyclists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists for Australia Olympic silver medalists for Australia Cyclists from Melbourne UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men) Olympic medalists in cycling Doping cases in Australian cycling Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games cyclists for Australia Australian track cyclists Cyclists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen Commonwealth Games gold medallists in cycling {{australia-Olympic-medalist-stub