Johannes Frederick “Mannie” Heymans (born 15 July 1971) is a

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

n cyclist. He was born in

Krugersdorp Krugersdorp (Afrikaans for ''Kruger's Town'') is a mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng Province, South Africa founded in 1887 by Marthinus Pretorius. Following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, a need arose for a major town in the west ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Personal

Heymans moved to Namibia in 1984 while the country was still occupied by his native South Africa. A rugby player until then, Heymans began cycling in 1987.

International

Heymans has represented Namibia numerous times, including at the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

and

2003 All-Africa Games The 8th All Africa Games were 5–17 October 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria. 53 countries participated in 23 sports. The main venue was the newly constructed Abuja Stadium. The organizing committee was headed by Nigerian Amos Adamu. Venues * Nation ...

. He also competed for his country at the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. As for the Summer Olympics, Heymans has participated in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 2008 games, Heymans was the country's flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies. Heymans won the inaugural Transalp Mountain Bike stage race in 1998 and then the first Absa Cape Epic in 2004.Heymans Namibia's flag-bearer at Games

The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, 1 August 2008

References

External links

Official web site

External links

* 1971 births White Namibian people White South African people Namibian Afrikaner people Living people People from Krugersdorp Namibian people of South African descent Namibian male cyclists Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Namibia Cyclists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Cyclists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Namibia Cape Epic winners Sportspeople from Gauteng Competitors at the 1991 All-Africa Games Competitors at the 1995 All-Africa Games Competitors at the 1999 All-Africa Games Competitors at the 2003 All-Africa Games African Games competitors for Namibia {{Namibia-cycling-bio-stub