Tour de Trump / Tour Du Pont

The new President of the United States of America Donald Trump has always been a fan of sports, but above all was his fixed idea of entrepreneur, which was that of "making money". After organizing golf tournaments, boxing and wrestling matches, he also became president of the New Jersey Generals (USFL), an American football team owned by the Trump family. Later cycling came in his sights and in 1989 he decided to organize a stage race with his name "Tour de Trump".

In his expectations this race had to surpass and replace the most famous European stage races. The new and financially well-equipped race was attended by very famous racers and in the roll of honor we find the first American winner of the Tour de France Greg Lemond (1992), Valentin Ekimov (1994) and also Lance Armstrong (1995 and 1996):

After Armstrongs dramatic doping confession, his lifetime disqualification and the revocation of all his victories - including the seven Tour de France ones - the two Tour de Trump victories remained in the Armstrong list because the disqualification covered only the period 1998 - 2005.

As main sponsor in the years 1991 till 1996 (the last Tour de Trump/du Pont) the American chemical magnate John Du Pont took over the name of the race:


John was also a big sports fan, especially in wrestling. To support this sport, he installed in his villa a wrestling facility for amateur wrestlers called "Team Foxcatcher":

Johns story, also told in the film "Foxcatcher", ended tragically, when in 1996 he killed the Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Dave Schultz (Los Angeles 1984) and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, where he died after a long illness in 2010.

Du Pont was also a great collector - passionate about philately. He also appeared on a stamp of the island of Redonda (quite doubtful!) indicating him as the inventor of the American triathlon:

His ONE CENT British Guiana magenta from 1815 - purchased in 1980 for $ 935,000 - was resold after his death by Sotheby's in 2014 for a record $ 9,480,000:

-----------------------

By Pasquale POLO, translation of « Il Tour de Trump – Du Pont » in Philasport no. 102 April / June 2017
 


References/External links:

More articles from Pasquale Polo: