Juan Esteban CURUCHET

With six Olympics, Juan Esteban Curuchet is the cyclist with the most participations, and among women only the incomparable Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli has surpassed him. Curuchet débuted at the Olympics in 1984, when the points race, Curuchet's specialty was first held at the Games. Curuchet came in fifth, a position he repeated at the Seoul Games. He then turned professional, thus missing the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Instead, he earned his first international championship medal, finishing third in the points race at the World Championships. It was the first of 12 medals at the World Championships, all won in either the Madison or the points race. His only title came in 2004, when Walter Pérez and Curuchet rode to Madison gold. Four years later, the pair also achieved Olympic success in the same event, winning the first Argentine cycling medal, with Curuchet being 43 years old. His points race abilities also helped him to win five Six Days events, three with his brother Gabriel Curuchet, one with Giovanni Lombardi and one with Pérez. Apart from the track, Curuchet also regularly appeared in road races, mostly in South America. He was a decent time trialist, and he won the Argentine title in that discipline three times (1998, 2002, 2009). At the Pan American Games, Curuchet earned five medals for Argentina, winning the Madison in 1999 (with his brother), 2003 and 2007 (with Pérez), adding to the two silver medals he had won back in 1983 in the points race and in 1987 in the team pursuit.