1. The first audience celebration with LeontienAnnouncer: Ladies and Gentlemen, today is all about one thing: a medal. And it's gold.
Leontien: Yeah, that's it (referring to medal).
Announcer: Leontien van Moorsel!
Cheering
People singing, "We are the Champions"
"Tinus! Tinus! From Anorexia to Gold"
Leontien shaking hands
2. At track with trainer
Moscow May 2000 Track Race
Trainer: She's scared she'll slip and fall. The only one on the track to slip and fall. The rest just keep going around. I just can't get that out of her head. Fear. That's why she rides so fast in the lead. She's scared in the group. She's scared everywhere.
3. Michael and Leontien at track
Trainer: Tinus, the only problem is that everyone rides on those tires. The Belgians ride on them, the Italians ride on them.
4. Leontien talking at track
Leontien: What kind of tires did I ride on last year? ... Then the track is just slippery.
Trainer: Yeah, she surprised me last year. She overcame everything. How many times has she been world champion, 4, 5 times? And she's nervous every time. Even a training race. Yeah. I tell her to just ride. …. She's blind to everyone else. Really insecure. Look, there's nervousness and there's insecurity and she's just plain insecure.
Leontien on stationary bike.
Michael: All you're thinking about is those tires. Just have faith in yourself. You aren't going to slip and fall. You don't have to be scared of that. Don't be nervous. Just keep concentrating. Don't look at anything else. Just listen. Stay focused.........
Leontien: Where will you be standing?......
Michael: Wait a minute, should I stand over there? He'll be on that side. Stay focused. I'll be on that side. Just focus.
Announcer: (can't understand).
5. Leontien talking at home
Leontien: I feel really good, but that last little bit, there's still a little ways to go. So we have to wait and see. I'll be happy when the time comes, and I can give it my all. But I know that right now, at this point, I'm only functioning at 95% and, well, I need to be at 110%.
6. Leontien practicing at track
Leontien walking.
Announcer: (can't understand).
Michael: Nervous?
Leontien gets on bike.
"Five, four, three, two, one…Go!"
Leontien riding bike on track.
Michael: Keep it up! Come on!
7. Michael and Leontien at breakfast in restaurant
Voices talking (can't understand).
8. (time: 4.28) Leontien talking at home
Leontien: I never weigh myself anymore. I've now reached a weight that I'm simply comfortable with. Whether or not I'm a little heavier in the winter and a little lighter in the summer, I don't need to know anymore. I can tell by my clothes. I've been doing that for 2 ½ years now and I'm totally okay with it.
9. Leontien and Michael at McDonald's
Talking about the food.
Unknown man: Then you should order a McChicken; it's pretty good.
Leontien: Yeah, but I don't like it. I shouldn't eat it if I don't like it, right?!
10. Leontien talking at home, interviewer asks a question
Interviewer: How much do you weigh?
Leontien: I think I now weigh around 59 kilos. I really couldn't say. I haven't weighed myself in 2 ½ years. Back in '98, the year I became Dutch champion,… I stood on the scale for the last time and I weighed 61 kilos.
Boekel, ouderlijk huis (Boekel, Parents' Home)
11. Leontien's dad showing trophies in garage
Leontien's dad: Yeah, this is the trophy cabinet from her youth. This is what she won cycling during the early years. There are around 180 trophies here. And, you know, this isn't even all of them. But I've always been proud to show these trophies to people. This is where Leontien's career all began.
12. Leontien's dad talking at home
Leontien's dad (sitting and talking): The first Dutch championship was in Friesland. It was so incredibly fantastic. There was this really bad storm, high winds, the weather was awful, and she defeated them all. It was fantastic. And she became Dutch champion.
13. Leontien's dad and interviewer at home
Interviewer: And it just kept going, huh?
Leontien's dad (looking at books): Yeah, that was where it all started, back in '85. In fact, we didn't see a consolation prize until after '93. It was always Win, Win, Win. And wanting to win.
14. Leontien talking with bushes in background
Leontien: Well, that's when I raced internationally for the first time. I did all right that first year, only I couldn't keep up. That's when I decided I wanted to reach the top. And I did really well for another year. But then you're world champion twice, and so you want to stay at that level. But then you think, there's more, there's also the Tour de France. Well, I weighed around 53 kilos then, but I was much too heavy if I wanted to win the Tour, much too heavy for that.
15. (time 7:10) Leontien's dad talking at home with scrapbook
Leontien's dad: She became lighter, lighter, lighter. They say you can ride uphill more easily if you're lighter, and she just got that so stuck in her head, that every kilo was extra weight that needed to be lost. Because then she'd be able to ride uphill better. Which was true, of course; they taught her that at Strofberg, that bicycling school in Spain. The less you weigh, the easier it is to ride uphill. So if you lose 5 kilos (they tie 5 kilos to your bike with sand bags or something like that), then, well, you feel the difference and see how important weight is. And then if you feel how much easier it is without the weight, you know, you'll want to keep losing more and more.
16. Leontien's mom talking at home
Leontien's mom: At a certain point she was really limited in what she would eat. She only wanted beans, for instance, and they had to be as dry as possible. And then with some onions in them. That was her meal. And that's what she rode the Tour on, on a can of beans! They even called her "can of beans" at the selection. She was getting worse, of course, but was still performing well, so no one thought it could do any harm. But in the long run it started to destroy her naturally and so obviously it could do harm.
17. Leontien's mom showing shirt and medals
Leontien's mom: The prize medal, let's see if she saved it. She doesn't save everything, that champ of ours. But she's still got this one.
18. Michael talking
Michael: She was a like a computer. She'd get up at exactly the same time, get up early every morning and it wasn't because she had set the alarm, but simply because her body woke up at that time because it needed food. She went to bed at 11 p.m. after finishing off the last, I don't know, say, 2 milliliters or so of yogurt (she measured everything) with like 3 little pieces of cornflakes in it. After two years of this, yeah, your body, her body just woke up at 7 a.m. automatically because it was starving.
19. Leontien and Michael, raining on porch
January 7, Olympic track (difficult to read). Leontien walks outside.
Leontien: Hi, nice weather, huh?
Michael: Summer in Australia?
Leontien: It looks like Holland.
20. (time: 10:03) Leontien on stationary bike
21. Leontien on road course in car, man speaking
Man: (can't understand)… He's coming this way.
22. Leontien talking in car
Leontien: It's really hard, of course, to find your ideal weight. It's like, my weight is fine for the track, but if there's like a little climb in the road race, personally I think I could stand to lose a few more kilos. So that's what makes the Sydney race so hard. You start with the track of course, and there there's 10 days in-between and then you ride the road race. So it's probably a good idea to do endurance training in the hills during those 10 days to try to lose those last 2 kilos.
23. Leontien thanks man for the tour of course
Leontien: Thank you (to the man)
Man in background: (can't understand)
Leontien: Yes, I know.
24. Leontien and Michael speaking again in car
Leontien (getting into car):… Well, I'm going to put everything I have into the track race. What a shitty course. Really.
Michael: Yeah, it's a little confusing.
Leontien: It's awful…. I think it's a totally shitty course.
25. (time: 11:45) Tour de Femmes Alps mountain race and Michael speaking
Alpe d'Huez - Tour de France 1992
Michael: Everything else came second. If it got too crowded at their house, then the company, well, they were pretty much asked to go sit in the garden instead of around the television. Because everyone had to simply stand aside for Leontien and her training. Especially during mealtimes. Yeah, that's when she would be really irritable and you had better keep at least 10 meters away from her.
26. Leontien talking during Tour de Femmes
Leontien: No, I wasn't the most pleasant person to be around (laughs). Not for my mom and dad. If my beans weren't ready on time, I'd just get aggressive. Which only makes sense really if you're training all day long, 5 hours a day, and you're taking in almost no calories and you only allow yourself to eat a can of beans at 5 o'clock. And if that can of beans isn't ready when you get home - totally starved - well, you simply go berserk. When I think about it now, I think, if that were my daughter, I would have grabbed hold of her and told her to go to her room, tell her, "You silly goofball, not in my house." But those people (referring to mother and father) thought, well, she's world champion and she's winning, so that must be normal. It was definitely not easy on them.
French announcer:(can't understand)
27. Leontien climbing hill, labored breathing audible
Sydney, January 2000
28. Velodrome at Casey Field, Sydney
Inside Velodrome
Man's voice: Sorry, sorry.
29. Leontien and Michael in Velodrome
30. (time: 14:35) Leontien talking ands autographing pictures
Leontien: I'm a total scaredy-cat. So if the track is really steeply banked, well, I'm almost too scared to train on it. But you need a good warm-up for the 3 km race. It's like, if there's a group riding and I let up on my pedals a little, I think I'm going to slide out. But I don't have that problem with this track. It's perfect for me.
31. Leontien posing for pictures
32. Leontien does laps behind motorcycle
33. Pictures of victories
34. Leontien's mom talking during victory pictures and at home
Leontien's mom: She's always thought she's fat. That's how it was. At Christmas, for instance, when everyone was at home and we'd be sitting around the table, Leontien would go upstairs because she didn't dare eat any of the snacks. But she's now come so far that she does join us from time to time when we've got company. But back then she wouldn't let herself join in by any means. She was scared that if she gained 2 kilos, that she wouldn't be able to lose the weight again, that it would just stay on.
35. (time: 16:18) Leontien's dad talking at home
Leontien's dad: Everything revolved around her weight, her weight, her weight. She simply had blinders on; it was like she was blind to everything but one thing: losing weight, losing weight, losing weight. And I kept thinking, "This is getting out of hand." Because I thought she'd never get better, that she would have a nervous breakdown and end up in an institution or something. That's how bad it got.
36. Tour de Femmes, Leontien talking
37. Leontien talking with bushes in background
Leontien: I was just, I was totally miserable. Here I was world champion and I had won the Tour de France and I think I must have been the unhappiest girl in the whole world. I just totally changed. It's like someone who's hungry all the time simply becomes a grouch. So I was no longer nice to my brothers and sisters. I wasn't nice to my parents. I met Michael during that time…After 6 months, he says to me, "Look, babe, if you want to continue like this and you want to stay world champion, that's up to you, but I can't go on like this. I love you, but it's no fun anymore." And then you stop and think about it and you think, "Leontien, you're not happy and if you keep going on like this, you'll lose everything you care about."
Track race (Barcelona Olympic Games)
Speaker: (can't understand)
38. Leontien at track race and Michael talking and
39. Michael talking in room with dark background
Michael: And then all of a sudden I bump into her at a men's and women's race and we start talking about how she was doing and, well, the sparks starting flying again and I think it was 2 ½ or 3 months later that she said to me, "Hey you, let's go out to eat sometime." That just floored me, I'm thinking, "Huh? Eat!?" You mean a cup of yogurt at 11 o'clock at night after a movie, right? (laughs). No, no, I think I've got things better under control. And so, okay, let's do it. I was at home and she called and the next day we made plans and, it's true, she ate an entire pizza. We just had a really nice time and after that we were close again, but then things starting going up and down. One week she'd take good care of herself and then, she was still on the national team of course, she was riding then, I wouldn't see her for a month because she'd be doing stage races or would be at a training camp, and then when she got back the problems would start all over again. So, well, until the time finally came that her body simply broke down.
40. (time: 19:02) Race between Longo and Leontien
Commentator: Longo puts on a sprint, world championship 1993, the two best women of them all on the left, the group behind them, Longo in the lead, Leontien van Moorsel attacks, Leontien van Moorsel passes, neck and neck, neck and neck, Longo or van Moorsel, Longo or van Moorsel, ooooohhh van Moorsel! Leontien van Moorsel 1!
41. Michael and Leontien talking during podium award and
42. Leontien talking at home
Michael: Oslo 1993, you became world champion. There was a big party afterwards. Champagne and dinner I believe it was, right?
Leontien: Yeah, I was there for the dinner. And I think I even drank a half a glass of champagne and went out that night with the entire cycling team. But during the afternoon, because I knew that I had to, I knew that the group, and I got along with everyone really well, would talk me into it. They would say, "You're world champion and that deserves a celebration! Don't be so silly." They started partying in the afternoon while I spent around 3 hours training. Because I knew I'd have to drink that glass of champagne in the evening and that, instead of Diet Coke, I may get a regular Coke served to me in the bar that night. It's just totally insane. You just become really sick in the head.
43. Leontien getting out of swimming pool and Michael talking
Michael: She looked horrible. We joke about now, but she was more dead than alive, only she didn't realize it yet.
44. Michael talking in room with dark background
Michael: I think that if you were to sit her down naked in a third world country, she'd fit right in with all those starving people you always see on TV. That's what she looked like at 43 kilos, with sunken cheeks, hair falling out, her nails just barely hanging from her fingertips, you name it, all of those kinds of things. There was this strange odor coming from her stomach, a sort of, I don't know, it's hard to explain, it's just something you could smell on her. It was really strange. Some things are too hard to explain, you have to see them for yourself.
45. (time: 21:30) Leontien and canoe, little raft, Michael talking
Interviewer: What do you see when you stand in front of the mirror?
Leontien: I think, "You're all skin and bones." When I look at those pictures now I think, "Girl, you look terrible." And back then I thought I could stand to lose another kilo.
46. Leontien talking at home
Interviewer: A kilo?
Leontien: Sure, or more. I would feel my stomach and there would only be this thin layer of skin covering it, but to me, to me it was a roll of fat. You get to be totally mentally disturbed.
47. Leontien and her mom at race, Michael talking
Michael: And more than one doctor was totally baffled at how she was able to pull it off. They even tried once, it was that same year, to refuse to issue a license if she didn't weigh at least 50 kg. So, yeah, she starts playing games with them. She'd gain a little weight, go from say 43 to 46 kilos, and then we would at least be halfway to where we wanted her to be, and then some important race would be coming up and so she'd get the license and do the race and then 3 days later she'd be back at 43 kilos.
48. Leontien's dad talking at home
Leontien's dad: She was only interested in one thing and that was losing weight. Until that wonderful moment, that is, when she realized what she was doing and said, "This is not good." And Michael helped her get on the right track.
49. Leontien exercising at home and Michael talking
Michael: At one point she couldn't even lift up her arms because it hurt too much. Yeah, and then you realize how serious it is and it can only go one of two ways: either you get into serious trouble or you realize what you're doing and you try to work at getting better. And fortunately she did just that. And so we pretty much ran away for 3 or 4 months at that point. We went on vacation to all kinds of places, stayed with friends in a vacation home somewhere in Belgium and just tried to work a little on getting her better in peace and quiet.
50. (time: 23:27) Leontien talking while on trainer
Leontien: Cycling wasn't at all important to me back then. I just wanted to function normally and eat bread in the morning like everyone else. I just wanted to live a normal life.
51. Michael talking in darkened room again
Michael: At a certain point, during the time we were away, it was like, we'd go eat something somewhere in the evening and, what would she eat? Not too much really, but she'd eat ice cream or something like that, which her body hadn't had for a long time, it was something other than carbohydrates, salad and yogurt. And it would just go right through her. So she'd eat an ice cream or a piece of cake during the day and then we'd wake up the next morning and you could see under her eyes and in her face that she was retaining water. It was amazing how fast she was gaining weight.
52. Michael talking during wedding footage
Michael: When you look at those pictures now, you can imagine a little how, after spending so many years, of course, getting so incredibly dried out, you become a sort of sponge that you totally squeeze dry, but the fat cells, they're still there, just totally empty.
53. Leontien talking during wedding footage
Leontien: You don't normally do that, do you? (referring to holding the door open).
Leontien: Michael supported me so much during that period. It's like, if you have a boyfriend and he says you look terrible and all that, and go ahead and starve yourself, then naturally it's a lot harder. But Michael just kept saying that I should just keep eating normally and that, sooner or later, my body would just eventually accept it and then I could live like a normal person again. And, well, yeah, he was totally right. But, like I said, that was a really hard time for him, but it was also really hard for me. Because, looking at yourself, seeing those pictures of me weighing 45 kilos and not being happy, is just as hard as looking at a 25-year-old girl who weighs 85 kilos and wears a size 44.
54. Civil servant performing marriage ceremony
Leontien Martha Henrika Petronella van Moorsel, do you take Michael Zijlaard as your legal husband and agree to faithfully comply with all duties required of the estate of matrimony?
Leontien: I do.
55. (time: 25:44) Leontien talking at home
Leontien: After I had taken it easy for a year and cycled for an hour twice a week or so, it was like, I just started, you know, longing to race again.
56. Leontien speaks in house and garage and
57. Leontien talking with bushes in background
Leontien: I started feeling like I had sort of bad taste in my mouth when it came to top sports, and so I started thinking to myself, "Leontien, you're not being fair to yourself. You had such a great experience with top sports and cycling for so many years and saying good-bye to top sports with a bad taste in your mouth, well, that's just not being fair to yourself." And so, I was thinking like, if I'm going to retire from cycling, I want to do that in a healthy way and feeling good about it. And that was when I said, well, I'm just going to race again, but not like I'm going to race to win, no, I'm going to race just to do it right, to show people and to convince myself that it can also be done the healthy way.
58. Leontien drafts motorbike and Michael's dad talking
Michael's dad: I remember it well. It was in Zwijndrecht, near the church, and she was riding the cycling criterion and if you heard what they were saying about her, my goodness, like "Wow, look at that fat ass" and "What does that pig think she's doing?", you know, those kinds of remarks. And if you keep going after such comments are thrown at you, that really shows character, it's like saying, "I'm going to ignore all that and I'm coming back."
59. Michael and Leontien talking in locker room
Michael: You know what happened? Something terrible. I forgot my bike.
Leontien: That's terrible. You can just grab a bike here, can't you?
Michael: No, they belong here.
Leontien: What now? So you'll just take the motorbike.
Michael: And then?
Leontien: Yeah, well, then…
Michael: Should I just do that?
Leontien: Yeah, that's better. Then we can take turns on the motorbike.
Michael: Me on a motorbike?
Leontien: Well then you shouldn't have forgotten it, huh.
Michael: Should I go get it?
Leontien: How could you forget it? How could you forget your bike?
Michael: I think I was just thinking about your bikes and the motorbike and all that.60. (time: 29:06) Michael's dad talking at track
Michael's dad: Nobody would believe it. Can you imagine, from Rotterdam to Amsterdam behind a motorbike and then training a little on the track. She had already done all her training that morning. She was at it for at least an hour. She wouldn't have stopped for even the queen; that's how it is when she's training.
61. Michael talking
Michael: You can tell that's probably the only thing on her mind, that she's afraid to be above competition weight, you know, it's the only pressure she feels. I think she's still got something stuck in her head that, if she's not thin enough, she can't go fast enough. You need to drill it into her head now and then that you should try to carry a few extra kilos the entire season and then when you really need to be at a certain weight, then you need to lose what's necessary at that point.
62. Michael's dad talking at track
63. Eating dinner while Michael's dad speaks
Michael's dad: I think my wife was a real support for her, especially in the beginning. And I think that she's one of the few in the background - truly in the background - who still always stands by her when it comes to eating, and she was also the one who encouraged Leontien to sell her house because now the laundry gets done, dinner is on the table on time, and her food is ready when she gets back. And it's not about spoiling her, no, but I can hardly expect for someone who trains 4 to 5 hours a day to also do their own laundry and cook. We don't even notice they're here. They've got the upstairs floor all to themselves and, to be honest, I enjoy having them around.
64. Leontien's dad talking in Sydney while looking at ocean
Leontien's dad: The way I see it, it's like she tumbled down a ravine and, every time she managed to climb up half a meter, she fell back down, and then she's standing on top again, standing on a rock, and the rock breaks off and there she is at the bottom again. And this is how she fought her way back until she was standing again with two hands on the railing. And she was out of the ravine.
65. (time: 31:45) Leontien's mom and dad lighting candles at church
66. Michael talking in dark room, Leontien's parents set up at roadside
Michael: And then suddenly the Olympic Games come up and people start talking, saying "You've won so much already, 5 world titles, the Tour de France twice, and the only thing you don't have is an Olympic medal." And then you realize once again that she loves to ride and that it's her life. So we said that, if you really want it, then we need to make sure everything is perfect and that you get the chance to prepare for Sydney.
Talking (can't understand)
67. Interviewer and Leontien talking
Interviewer: You've overcome anorexia, but do you think it's possible for other sufferers of anorexia to overcome it?
Leontien: Yeah, I think so. It's like, if you have anorexia, at the time you're suffering from it, when I think back to it now, you've got to have so much perseverance, because otherwise you can't starve yourself day in, day out. And if you can do all that to your own body, then I say that anyone who has anorexia has to be so strong that they can overcome it as well. Because you have such a, such a strong will, anyone with anorexia has such a strong will, then they've got a strong enough will to overcome it, right?
Interviewer: But you have to turn the switch, right?
Leontien: Yeah, and you need the right people around you, people who are able to influence you. Yeah, and for me that was Michael, but, of course, there's only one Michael.
68. Leontien's dad at roadside, Go Tinus!
Leontien's dad: Come on, Tinus, come on, Tinus! Who's in front? What? Who's in front?
69. Leontien's mom talking
Leontien's mom: I hope for her sake that Sydney will bring some kind of closure for her and that she brings home a medal. Whether it's gold, bronze or silver, I'll leave that aside, but as long as she brings home a medal, then for her it's like, that's what she's missing, an Olympic medal.
70. Talking
71. Leontien's dad and unknown man (Michael's father) talking
Leontien's dad: Where is she?
Unknown man: It looks good.
Leontien's dad: Well, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Unknown man: As long as she's riding in front.
Leontien's dad: But it's hard to see, it's hard to see. Which Dutch riders are in front?
72. Roadside, Go Tinus
Leontien's dad: Yell! (to wife), Tinus, Tinus, Tinus!
73. Commentator talking
Commentator: She's drafting nicely behind, there's the sign for the final kilometer. We'll know the outcome in 1000 meters.
74. Leontien's mom and dad
Leontien's dad: No, we're not there yet. (A little later) Come on. Give it all you got!
75. Leontien's mom and dad, chanting
Leontien's mom and dad: Come on Tinus, Tinus, Tinus. Go for it! (etc.)
76. Leontien wins!!!
Voices: Hurray, hurray, hurray, hurry (etc.)
77. Celebration all around
78. Leontien gets hugs, talking
Voices: (can't understand)
Leontien: I'm so tired. I can't believe it.
79. Leontien's mom and dad and Leontien talking
80. Talking
Voices: All right, champ! All right Leontien! Well done, Tinus! Holland!
Leontien: I can't believe it.
81. Commentator, medals
Commentator: Olympic champion and gold medallist, representing the Netherlands, Leontien Zijlaard.
82. Fantastic Leontien
Dutch commentator: She's the cycling queen of the year 2000. Whatever you say, whatever you do, well done, Leontien! So you can win tactical races, too. Well done. Three kisses on the cheek from Hein.
83. National anthem
Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel won 4 Olympic medals at the Sydney Games.
84. The End
Translated by Cindy Beckman