Julio César León (born 2 February 1925) is a former

cyclist Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

from

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

who competed at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He was the first sportsperson from Venezuela to take part in the Olympic Games, He was eliminated in the second round of the sprint, being beaten by the eventual gold medalist, Italian Mario Ghella In the 1000 metres time trial, he finished 14th with a time of 1:18.1. At the Cycling World Championships in France in 1947, León qualified for the top eight in the sprint with a time of 10.9 seconds. After the Olympics he joined the Italian team Bianchi. He once cycled from Caracas to Maracay in two hours and forty minutes. He broke the record for Team Pursuit with his teammate Domingo Rivas y Montilla in the Teo Capriles Velodrome at the National Institute of Sport with a time of 4 minutes, 40 seconds in the 4,000 m event at a rate of 1 minute and 10 seconds per kilometer. Julio César was a Bolivarian, Central American and Pan-American champion on two occasions and was also a champion in Chile Argentina and Uruguay. In 1959, Caracas,

, hosted the

Central American and Caribbean Games The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for countries in Cent ...

for the first time, and León went on to win the gold medal in the 1 Km track event and the silver medal in the track sprint. León is an engineering graduate from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). The Weight Training Gymnasium of the Ministry of Sports in Venezuela bears his name.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Julio Cesar 1925 births Living people Venezuelan male cyclists Cyclists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists for Venezuela Venezuelan track cyclists People from Trujillo (state) 20th-century Venezuelan people