Anne-Caroline Chausson (born 8 October 1977 in

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlie ...

) is a French professional cyclist who competes in bicycle enduro,

bicycle motocross BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ear ...

(BMX), downhill

time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

and cross-country

mass start {{refimprove, date=February 2018 Mass start is a format of starting in some racing sports such as long-distance running in sport of athletics, speed skating, long-distance cross-country skiing and biathlon. There are usually many competitors in ...

, dual, and four-cross

mountain bicycle A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which m ...

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

. She is best known for having won thirteen

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues raci ...

senior

mountain bike world championship The UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are the world championship events for mountain bike racing in the disciplines of cross country, downhill, and four-cross. They are organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing b ...

rainbow jersey The rainbow jersey is the distinctive jersey worn by the reigning world champion in a cycling discipline, since 1927. The jersey is predominantly white with five horizontal bands in the UCI colours around the chest. From the bottom up the c ...

s'', fourteen

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an mountain bike championships, and five consecutive

Mountain Bike World Cup The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is a multi-round mountain bike racing series that is sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale. The first World Cup series – which was composed of cross-country events – was held in 1989. The Downhill W ...

downhill series (1998-2002). She was nominated for the 2003

Laureus World Sports Awards The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual award ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year. It was established in 1999 by Laureus Sport for Good Foundation foundin ...

Alternative Sportsperson of the Year. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, Chausson competed for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the inaugural women's BMX event, winning the gold medal.

Career highlights

Born in

, Chausson capitalized on her previously successful

BMX racing BMX racing is a type of off-road bicycle racing. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing. BMX bicycle races are sprint races on purpose-built off-road single-lap race tracks. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to ei ...

career that ended in 1993. Winning the 1993 downhill junior

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

started her international successful career. She enjoyed quick success early in her mountain bike racing career and won 1994 still being a Junior her first World Cup race in Cap d'Ail/FRA. Her amazing skills under different weather and track conditions were proofed after finishing 2nd in a muddy and at start level snow-covered Hindelang/GER World Cup. Also Silverstar the same year she was 2nd and this summed up to a solid 2nd overall. 1994, and 1995 two more downhill junior

s before matriculating to the senior circuit. Her 1995 win in Kirchzarten had a bitter taste to her. She asked to ride Elite, but got no permission. Her race time then was faster to the time of the Elite Champion Leigh Donovan. Very emotional at the prize giving she refused to pull over the Junior Champions jersey. In Elite she could win the downhill title in eight consecutive years. Chausson has also been regarded to be the world's greatest downhiller of all time. In 1996, when she finished second behind

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Missy Giove for the overall

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

title, Chausson captured the World Champions title, defeating

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

list American Leigh Donovan and Giove, who would claim the

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

. Chausson would once more finish second to Giove in the 1997 World Cup overall standings but easily claimed that year's world championship, defeating

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports * Swiss Internation ...

Marielle Saner and Finn Katja Repo. In 1998, Chausson finally overcame Giove, with whom she would

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...

for nearly a

decade A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

, to win the World Cup title and subsequently won the world championship over World Cup bronze medallist Nolvenn LeCaer; she would repeat her double in 1999 and 2000, each time topping Giove for the World Cup title and Repo for the world championship. In 2000, Chausson expanded her competitive repertoire, participating in the duals event, in which riders compete on

parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster o ...

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

s, composed of identical obstacles—primarily jumps and

berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/ separation ...

s—in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

, during the third

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

in which it was contested at the World Cup level, after which the 2000 iteration of the world championships featured the event for the first time; Chausson captured each crown, ahead each time of American

Tara Llanes Tara Janelle Llanes (born November 28, 1976 in West Covina, California United States) is a Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and a wheelchair basketball player whose prime competitive years were from 1990-1993. She became a champion Mountain Bike (MT ...

. Chausson once more participated in the duals event in 2001, failing to win a medal in the World Cup, won by Donovan, but winning the world championship once more, garnering the second and last duals title, this over Australian Katrina Miller, the World Cup silver medallist. The four-cross

-inspired event, in which four cyclists ride on the same course betwixt

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

s, such that only the top finisher advances to a subsequent round, was chosen in 2001 by the

National Off-Road Bicycle Association USA Cycling or USAC, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the national governing body for bicycle racing in the United States. It covers the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, and BMX across all ages and ability levels ...

, the

sports authority Sports Authority, Inc. (formerly The Sports Authority) was an American sports retailer. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the ret ...

governing mountain biking for

USA Cycling USA Cycling or USAC, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the national governing body for bicycle racing in the United States. It covers the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, and BMX across all ages and ability level ...

, to replace the duals and duals-

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

events and replaced the duals event in 2002 in both the World Cup and world championships competitions; Chausson nevertheless won the four-cross and downhill titles in each, ahead of countrymate

Sabrina Jonnier Sabrina Jonnier (born 19 August 1981) is a French former professional downhill mountain biker. She won the general classification of the UCI Downhill World Cup five times: in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010. She was also the world downhill cham ...

in each, save for in the four-cross event at the world championships, where she topped Miller. In 2007, she resumed BMX racing in pursuit of an Olympic medal in

which was making its debut in the

2008 Summer Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

. This effort was successful when she won the gold medal in Women's BMX. Since the women's medal round was staged before the men's, she became the very first person to win a gold medal in that sport. After this she returned to mountain biking to focus on enduro racing. In 2012, she won the seven-day-long Trans-Provence Enduro Race. Anne Caroline Chausson is recovering well from her second bout of cancer. Three months after her surgery, and after finishing a course of tomotherapy (radiotherapy), she's back out riding bikes agai

BMX Olympic champion

Chausson was chosen to represent France in the inaugural women's BMX event at the

, with Laëtitia Le Corguillé. She became the first ever Olympic gold medal winner in BMX racing after winning the one-round final, while Le Corguillé took the silver medal after

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rider

Shanaze Reade Shanaze Danielle Reade (born 23 September 1988 in Crewe, Cheshire, United Kingdom) is a British former bicycle motocross (BMX) racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. She has won the UCI BMX World Championships thr ...

clipped Chausson's rear wheel and fell in the final turn.

Titles

BMX *BMX Olympic Champion: 2008 Mountain biking *Junior downhill World Champion: 1993, 1994, 1995 *Senior downhill World Champion: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 *Senior dual slalom World Champion: 2000, 2001 *Senior four-cross World Champion: 2002, 2003 *World Cup downhill series winner: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 *World Cup dual slalom series winner: 2000 *World Cup four-cross series winner: 2002

External links

Official website
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chausson, Anne-Caroline 1977 births Living people French female cyclists Downhill mountain bikers Four-cross mountain bikers BMX riders Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of France Olympic gold medalists for France Sportspeople from Dijon Olympic medalists in cycling Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics UCI Mountain Bike World Champions (women) French mountain bikers Cyclists from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté