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Toni Merkens

Toni Merkens
Personal information
Full name	Nikolaus Anton Merkens
Nickname	Toni
Born	(1912-06-21)21 June 1912 Cologne, German Empire
Died	20 June 1944(1944-06-20) (aged 31) Wildbad, Nazi Germany
Team information
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprint, stayers
Medal record Men's track cycling Representing  Germany Olympic Games 1936 Berlin Sprint

Nikolaus Anton "Toni" Merkens (21 June 1912 – 20 June 1944) was a racing cyclist from Germany and Olympic champion. He represented his native country at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where he won the gold medal in the men's 1000 meter match sprint event.

Racing career

Merkens trained as a bicycle mechanic with Fritz Köthke. In 1933 he won his first German championship in sprint. In 1934, he was able to repeat this success and also won the British Open Championships and the Grand Prix de Paris. At the World Championships he finished fourth. In 1935 he again won the championships in Germany and the UK and the Paris Grand Prix. At the World Championships in Brussels, he also won the title in the final against Dutch cyclist Arie van Vliet 2-1.

During the first race of the 1936 Olympic final, Merkens clearly interfered with Arie van Vliet, but no foul was called by the officials. Van Vliet also lost the second race of the final and received the silver medal. After a protest by the Dutch team, Merkens, rather than being disqualified, was fined 100 marks.

Merkens turned professional immediately after the 1936 Olympics. In 1937 and 1939, he was German Vice Champion in the sprint. In 1940 he was the German champion in stayers, and was Vice Champion in 1941. In 1942 he won the German professional championship in the sprint and was Vice Champion again in the stayers.

World War II

Merkens was drafted into the army in 1942. Merkens was killed in World War II fighting the Soviets on the Eastern Front. He was struck between the heart and lungs by a shell splinter, and died in a hospital in Wildbad after becoming ill with meningitis.

Commemoration

In the Munich Olympiapark, the road between the main stadium and the velodrome is called Toni-Merkens-Weg (Toni Merkens Way). A memorial stone was erected in 1948 at the velodrome in Cologne.

References

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1. "Toni Merkens Biography and Olympic Results". Sports Reference LLC. 2012. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
2. "1936 Summer Olympics – Berlin, Germany – Cycling" Archived 1 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on 27 August 2008)
3. Wallechinsky, David; Loucky, Jaime (2012). The Complete Book of the Olympics 2012 Edition. London: Aurum Press. p. 544. ISBN 978-1-84513-695-6.
4. "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2018.

Literature

• Volker Kluge (1997). Olympische Sommerspiele. Die Chronik I, Berlin. ISBN 3-328-00715-6
• Pascal Sergent, Guy Crasset, Hervé Dauchy (2000). Mondial Encyclopedie Cyclisme. Volume 3 G-P, UCI. ISBN 90-74128-73-4

v t e German Amateur National Championship, Sprint (track cycling)
1890, 1891 Alwin Vater 1892 Jean Schaaf 1893, 1894 August Lehr 1895 Thomas Schlüter 1896 Friedrich Opel 1897 August Stoffregen 1898, 1899 Paul Albert 1900, 1902 Albert Leopold 1901 Willy Kritzmann 1903 Walter Engelman 1904, 1913 Christel Rode 1905 Otto Küpferling 1906 Bruno Götze 1907–1910 Karl Neumer 1911 Otto Gosche 1912 Max Hansen 1914 Richard Gottschalk 1917, 1919, 1920 Fritz Schrefeld 1918 Arthur Hensch 1921 Johannes Drohten 1922 Walter Heidenreich 1923–1925 Paul Oszmella 1926, 1927 Mathias Engel 1928 Hans Bernhardt 1929 Fritz Fliegel 1930 Robert Trauden 1931, 1932 Hans Dasch 1933–1936 Toni Merkens 1937 Heinz Hasselberg 1938 Jean Schorn 1939 Gerhard Purann 1940, 1947 Willy Schertle 1941, 1942, 1944 Werner Bunzel 1943 Georg Voggenreiter 1948, 1949 Willy Trost 1950–1954 Werner Potzernheim 1955 Günther Ziegler 1956 Heinz Lauff 1957 Rudi Altig 1958 Sigi Walther 1959, 1960 Günter Kaslowski 1961, 1962 Ehrenfried Rudolph 1963–1965 Willi Fuggerer 1968–1971 Jürgen Barth 1972–1974, 1976 Dieter Berkmann 1975 Rainer Klenner 1977, 1979, 1983 Gerhard Scheller 1978 Dieter Giebken 1980–1982, 1984 Fredy Schmidtke 1985, 1989 Hans-Jürgen Greil 1986, 1988, 1990 Markus Nagel 1987 Frank Weber 1991 Jens Fiedler

• 1912 births
• 1944 deaths
• German male cyclists
• Olympic cyclists for Germany
• Cyclists at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists for Germany
• German Army personnel killed in World War II
• Cyclists from Cologne
• Olympic medalists in cycling
• German track cyclists
• Sportspeople from the Rhine Province
• Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• 20th-century German sportsmen
• Military personnel from Cologne