The American Sikh Who Took Home A Historic Olympic Gold In 1965

Having recently watched HBO’s absurd cycle saga Tour De Pharmacy - a 50-minute short feature stuffed with rambunctious doped up characters, each competing for the most epic and cringe-worthy moments, such as a tournament-wide brawl resulting in John Cena – a name I had long forgotten till now – twirling a nude cyclist in the air.

You see, the 2017 production, Tour De Pharmacy, is ‘set’ during the 1982 Tour De France, a time when doping was as common as pumping one’s tires. The competition was so dirty the White Collar sport was tainted a murky brown. Harkening back to this absurd era conjured up the faded memory of the 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist, Alexi Grewal. The Indian-American was the first man to take home an Olympic Gold Medal in road cycling for the USA, which was a historic highlight for the 1984 summer Olympics of Los Angeles.

The manoeuvre in which he outfoxed the Canadian favourite Steve Bauer is still hailed as one of the most sensational last-minute wins of competitive road cycling, spurring articles, such as, Why I Hate Alexi Grewal, by a downtrodden Canadian cycling fan. So why mention the ridiculous HBO cinematic cycling parody when speaking of this Gold Medal-winning icon?

Well, let’s just say Grewal’s cycling career wasn’t all lilies and daffodils. His personality earned him an enfant terrible title in the professional cycling world, with incidents like chucking a water bottle at a fellow teammate’s head, spitting on a cameraman, doping, and lying to a fellow teammate about food supplies, all adding to his bad boy rep.

Grewal had one of those frustrating careers plagued by a dissatisfaction that clung to him like an oil spill sticks to a seagull. In fact, when speaking to The New York Times, Grewal commented that the only time he really felt content in his life was mountain biking and camping with his two brothers in Colorado. Right before the last Tour De France Grewal participated in, he even admitted, while speaking to The New York Times, “My goal is to find out whether I’m not tortured if I’m doing bad, not dissatisfied if I’m doing well.’’

Inevitably, Grewal left the European cycling circuit, having dropped out of the Panasonic cycling team as well as being fired from the 7-Eleven cycling team, reportedly due to his difficult personality.

He continued to participate in professional competition in the USA by joining up with the Coors Lite cycling team in 1989. Grewal would go on to win the Bob Cook Memorial Mt. Evans Hill Climb for the third time in 1990 (previously taking home the trophy in 1981 and 1984) as well as having other minor successes around the States. However, after his departure from the Coors Lite cycling team in 1993 Grewal would only go on to stir up radio silence until the year 2011.

Borderline unrecognizable to any who knew him at his peak, Grewal appeared at the first Crooked Roubaix in Winter Park Colorado, a 90-mile ride over gravel roads. He had traded-in his spandex cycling getup for a flannel shirt and hiking boots. He also added a rustic touch to his attire by substituting his cycling helmet for a construction hard hat. And instead of riding up on a sleek Montello road bike, Grewal supposedly whipped in with a 17-year-old mountain bike. Safe to say, time had waved its wand.

His appearance may have seemed a tad rugged, yet the 50-year-old ex-champ managed to place 4th in the race – an impressive feat for a geezer who had torn a fair share of his ligaments over the years. After the race, Grewal went back to his second-life passion, woodworking. An occupation that appears to have eased Grewal into a more relaxed state of mind.

If you’d like to know more about the legend, this play-by-play write up (located at the bottom of the Velominati article) of Grewal’s Gold Medal win, by the man himself, is rather a great read. In addition, Grewal wrote an interesting velonews article on drug abuse in the cycling world, which is also a good read. Maybe it is time for Grewal’s auto-biography, he certainly has the writing chops for it.

Feature image via Pez Cycling News

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