Winners: Alison Sydor, Cycling - Mountain Bike
Alison Sydor competing in the women’s cross country mountain biking event at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada.
Date: August 2, 1999
Collection: CP photo/Frank Gunn
1996 - Feature Story
Long before North Vancouver’s Alison Sydor became the best in the world on two wheels she was the best in Alberta in three events – winning the Alberta junior triathlon championship. But at age 21, she began concentrating her energy on cycling, becoming a member of the national road team and a 1992 Olympian even as she began dabbling in mountain biking. Sydor quickly became a world force in the burgeoning cycling discipline on trails, winning the 1994 and 1995 World Championship. The year 1996 confirmed her status as the top female athlete in Canada and a world star. Sydor, 30, won her third consecutive World Mountain Bike Championship in Cairns, Australia and the World Cup cross-country title by winning six of 10 events on the circuit. She also earned a Silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Velonews Magazine honoured her as its International Cyclist of 1996.
Career Highlights
- 2007 Inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame
- 1996 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award (Canada’s female athlete of the year)
- 1996 Silver medal in mountain biking at the Olympic Games in Atlanta
- 1994-1996 Gold medals at the World Mountain Bike Championships
- 1991 Bronze medal at the UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany
