Cycling Victim Was Olympic Athlete, World Class Triathlete

posted: February 23rd, 2011 04:58 pm | 8Comments

Friends are remembering Amine Britel as a “very, very, very smart guy” who was an Olympics athlete, a professional soccer player and world class triathlete as well as a Newport Beach business owner.

Britel, 41, was killed while cycling up San Joaquin Hills Road about 6 p.m. Monday. Police arrested a 22-year-old Newport Coast woman on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Her bail was set at $100,000, and according to online county jail logs, she has posted bail and been released.

Police say she was driving a white Volkswagen Jetta when she hit Britel between Spyglass Hill Road and and Newport Ridge Drive West. Britel died at the scene.

Britel was born in Morocco but moved to France with his family as a child. He excelled in equestrian jumping and was a sprinter and eventually competed in the 2002 Triathlon World Championships and participated in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona as a member of the 4 x 400 meter relay team. According to his 2002 resume, which lists a Newport Beach address, Britel competed internationally in the sprint and the long jump, was first and second degree in equestrian jumping and dressage and played professional soccer in first division in France. He had trained for the 2004 Olympic Games, where he had intended to represent Morocco in the Triathalon.

He attended Cal-Berkeley, where he was a member of the Track and Field team and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1997. He later attended Harvard Business School and earned a Master in Business Administration in 2000. He later founded the Gateway2Discovery travel business in Newport Beach. The business began with a focus on travel to Morocco, but in 2004 Britel expanded with a more global approach, friends said.

Nanci Goedecker said she met Britel in 2002.

“He was very, very, very smart,” she said. “Almost two smart for a lot of people. He was always a little cut above. He was an extreme person, very passionate about what he did. If he was interested in something, he was interested 200 percent.”

Kimberley Mac, another friend, agreed.

“He was a very well-versed man,” she said. “He lived his life very, very fully. He loved to be open to life.”

Bill Leach, a running coach and triathlon organizer, trained with Britel.

“Amine and I have ridden a lot together,” he said. “He was a very accomplished athlete, a Type A person with a vision for what he wanted for his company.”

Friends said Britel was single and that his father and sister lived overseas.

“I’m just shocked,” Mac said. “I’m just stunned.”

Goedecker also said the news hit hard.

“When I hear about a cyclist down, I think, ‘Do I know this person?’” she said. “Too often I do. This is beyond everything. I want to throw the book at the person responsible. She extinguished such a light.”

Photo courtesy of Britel’s friends.

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