Kaia Schmid (born January 7, 2003) is an American professional cyclist, who currently rides for 's Continental team.

Amateur career

Schmid was raised in

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, along the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsu ...

, where she pursued track, cyclo-cross, and road cycling, as well as

mogul skiing Mogul skiing is a freestyle skiing, freestyle skiing competition consisting of one timed run of free skiing on a steep, heavily moguled course, stressing technical turns, aerial maneuvers and speed. Internationally, the sport is contested at the ...

. By 2018, Schmid committed to cycling, and rode with the amateur New England Devo team before joining LUX Junior Cycling in 2020. She had a successful junior career, winning seven national titles on the road and track, a world track title in the

elimination race Elimination races or "snap-dragon" races in bicycle racing are a form of race wherein during the course of the race, certain participants are eliminated through various criteria. The most common types of elimination races are the ''miss and out'' a ...

, and a silver medal in the road race at

2021 UCI Road World Championships The 2021 UCI Road World Championships was the 94th edition of the UCI Road World Championships, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing. It was held between 19 and 26 September 2021 in the Flanders region of Belgium. The region w ...

. Following her performance at the world championships, Schmid was called "next big star of American bike racing" in 2021 by Cyclingnews.com. She was also named to a list of "six young riders to watch" for 2022 by Velo magazine.

Professional career

Schmid joined UCI WorldTeam before the 2022 season. In interviews with both Cyclingnews.com and Velo, Schmid has stated she struggled physically and mentally with the transition from junior to professional racing. Schmid dealt with multiple illnesses during the 2022 season, including

glandular fever A gland is a cell or an organ in an animal's body that produces and secretes different substances that the organism needs, either into the bloodstream or into a body cavity or outer surface. A gland may also function to remove unwanted substances ...

, and crashed during a race, causing her to miss multiple months with injury. Schmid revealed in 2023 that she was also impacted by

relative energy deficiency in sport Relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S) is a syndrome in which disordered eating (or ''low energy availability''), amenorrhoea/ oligomenorrhoea (in women), and decreased bone mineral density (osteoporosis and osteopenia) are present. It is ca ...

during this time. Reflecting on the mental transition of winning at the junior level to "merely fighting for survival" in senior races, Schmid has advocated for more U23 women's races to help young riders develop, similar to what exists in men's cycling.

Major results

Source:

Road

;2021 : 2nd Silver medal uci

Road race, UCI World Junior Road Championships ;2022 : 5th

MerXem Classic MerXem Classic is an elite women's professional one-day road bicycle race held in Belgium; as of 2022 it is rated by the UCI as a 1.1 race. The race was annulled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a c ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmid, Kaia 2003 births Living people American female cyclists Sportspeople from Marblehead, Massachusetts American cyclists American female track and field athletes