Legs pumping, wind in the face – 1995 Cycling Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin

Today, the 1995 Cycling Commemorative Silver Dollar coin tells the story.

For the 1996 Centennial Games, the US Mint produced the 1995 Cycling Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin with a mintage of less than 140,000.

During the games, Stone Mountain hosted the track cycling events at the Velodrome built in the park.

Five men’s events and three women’s events raced around the oval track for the gold, silver and bronze medals. During those events, athletes set two world and 21 Olympic records in the modular Velodrome.

From the outset, the Atlanta Olympic Committee in conjunction with Stone Mountain chose to make the Velodrome a temporary facility, but not a throwaway structure.

Instead, the Committee purchased a modular structure that could be dismantled and sold afterwards.

The traditional-shaped track was 250 meters at the measurement line, 7 meters wide with 42 degrees in the turns and 13 degrees in the straight areas. The modular steel structure supported a high-tech waterproof custom wooden track.

The Committee also chose not to cover the Velodrome, even though most cities hosting the Olympic Games since 1976 held the cycling track events in a covered arena.

The addition of a building with a roof would have made the Velodrome more difficult to dismantle.

Shortly after the Olympic Games ended in Atlanta, Walt Disney World Sports purchased the modular structure in September 1996 to add to their sports complex in Florida.

Though the actual purchase price was never disclosed, published reports showed the selling price at $600,000.

Where is the Velodrome?

As late as 2007, a guide for adults visiting Walt Disney World listed the “Olympic-tested 250-meter velodrome” as an attraction in the 200-acre Wide World of Sports athletic complex.

Today, though, the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex does not show the velodrome on their map of the sports facilities.

Was it not lucrative enough? Have cycling athletes lost interest in track riding?

Is the velodrome packed away in mothballs?

Did the complex sell the modular structure to some other business or city?

Locally, the cycling events at Stone Mountain Park are just a memory now. People visiting the park enjoy the songbird and habitat trail where the track cycling competitions once occurred.

In recognition of all the cycling events – track, road and mountain – during the Atlanta Centennial Games, here’s the 1995 Cycling Commemorative Silver Dollar coin.

1995 Cycling Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin