Everywhere Linda Mockridge goes people remember her champion cyclist dad Russell.
“I can go anywhere in Victoria, and probably interstate, and even overseas,” she said, as Geelong council immortalised Russell’s famous surname at a new pavilion on Wednesday.
“People come up to me and say, ‘Mockridge, that’s a name I recognise. Any relation to…?’
“So I’ve heard the stories, and I’ve still got friends who were friends of my mother and father’s that I keep up with as well.”
Geelong’s Edward Russell Mockridge was one of the greatest Australian cyclists in history.
He won two gold medals in one day at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and 12 Australian championships throughout his career.
Linda was a toddler when her father, 30, died in a road accident in the early stages of the 1958 Tour of Gippsland.
She described Geelong council naming its “new home of cycling” at the Belmont Criterium Track the Russell Mockridge Pavilion as an honour.
“And kind of not unexpected in a way, because I know that Geelong people have been holding his memory dear for a long time, so it’s just lovely,” she said.
“I teach, and I have taken his gold medals into school and showed them, and they go, ‘Really?’ I’m not quite sure they believe me. So it’s been amazing.”
Geelong Mayor and avid cyclist Bruce Harwood described Mockridge as one of the city’s greatest sportsmen.
“It’s fantastic that our cyclists of today will now see his name and remember his deeds every time they come to train.”
The City contributed $934,000 and the Victorian Government $466,000 for the pavilion.
