Geneviève Jeanson (born August 29, 1981) is a former professional

bicycle racer Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling ...

from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. She won the world junior road and time trial championships in 1999 and the Tour de Snowy in 2000. Later that year she won

La Flèche Wallonne La Flèche Wallonne (, French for "The Walloon Arrow") is a men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Wallonia, Belgium. The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is today normally held mid-week betw ...

World Cup race. She joined the Canadian Olympic team that year. She acknowledged in a documentary on

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

(the French-language CBC) on September 20, 2007, that she had been administered EPO more or less continuously since she was 16 years old. After residing in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

and

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

(where she studied sociology and psychology), Jeanson came back to

Lachine, Quebec Lachine () is a borough (''arrondissement'') within the city of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was an autonomous city until the municipal mergers in 2002. History Lachine, apparently from the French term ' ...

in 2012 to live with her once estranged parents and complete her college-level education at the Saint-Anne Collégial International. In autumn 2014, she attended

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

, in Montreal, where she studied neuroscience. Jeanson currently lives with her common law husband and works in the fitness industry.

2000 Olympic selection

Controversy dogged Jeanson throughout her career. Before the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

in 2000, she was accused of seeking special treatment by wanting an exemption from Olympic selection rules adopted by the

Canadian Cycling Association The Canadian Cycling Association (CCA), branded as Cycling Canada (CC) (French: ''Cyclisme Canada'' (''CC'')) is the national governing body of cycle racing in Canada. Role Cycling Canada is a National Sport Organization whose main reason for bei ...

. She said the procedure considered cumulative results for 1999 and 2000 but that she had raced as a junior in 1999 and could not achieve the results needed for selection. She and the Canadian Cycling Federation agreed that she would qualify for the Olympic selection race if she could finish in the top eight of two of five selected races. This she did by winning the Tour de Snowy and

La Flèche Wallonne Féminine La Flèche Wallonne Féminine is a professional women's bicycle road race held each year in Wallonia, Belgium, in April. It is part of the UCI Women's World Tour, cycling's season-long competition of top-tier races, in which it is the third-olde ...

. Then, in July 2000, she qualified by finishing ahead of the other candidates in the Canadian Road Cycling Championship.

2000 Olympics

Controversy followed her to the Olympics. Towards the end of the road race, her teammate Lyne Bessette was in a break. Jeanson's detractors maintain that, on instructions from her coach, André Aubut, Jeanson helped chase the break and denied her teammate an opportunity to win a medal. Jeanson's defenders said she had ridden near the front as expected of a teammate trying to break the chase, and moved forward only to close a small gap when the break was almost caught.

2001 Racing

In 2001, she won four of five stages at the

Redlands Bicycle Classic The Redlands Bicycle Classic is a cycling stage race located in Redlands, California, United States that has been held since 1985. It consists of three road races, an individual time trial and a criterium A criterium, or crit, is a bike race ...

, winning overall by nearly 10 minutes, an unprecedented margin. Then, at the

Tour of the Gila The Tour of the Gila is a cycling stage race for both men and women located in New Mexico, United States. It is sponsored by the component maker SRAM. The "Gila" began in 1987. Beginning in 2012, the men's Gila has been added to the UCI America ...

in early May, she won four of five stages and the overall victory, this time by an unprecedented 15 minutes. On some stages she broke away early and rode alone the rest of the way. In early June, she won the

Montreal World Cup Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, lapping most of the field and winning by more than seven minutes.

Doping

In late 2003, while with the national team preparing for the world championships in Hamilton, Ontario, Jeanson had a

hematocrit The hematocrit () (Ht or HCT), also known by several other names, is the volume percentage (vol%) of red blood cells (RBCs) in blood, measured as part of a blood test. The measurement depends on the number and size of red blood cells. It is norm ...

level (a measure of red cells in the blood) above the limit and was not allowed to race for two weeks. She missed the championships. Jeanson blamed the finding on an

altitude tent An altitude tent is a sealed tent used to simulate a higher altitude with reduced oxygen. Living or training at altitude causes the body to adapt to the lower oxygen content by producing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells and hemoglobin, thu ...

used as part of her training. Subsequent doping tests were negative. On 25 July 2005, at the Tour de 'Toona stage race in Pennsylvania, Jeanson had an out-of-competition test. Jeanson said months later that she tested positive for EPO, a banned substance. She denied taking a banned substance but in January 2006 she announced her retirement. On November 28, 2006, the

United States Anti-Doping Agency The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti- doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent ...

said she had accepted a two-year suspension from 25 July 2005, the day her sample was taken. In an interview on

Cyclingnews.com Cyclingnews.com is a website providing cycling news and race result owned by Future. History In 1995 Australian Bill Mitchell, a keen cyclist and professor of economics at the University of Newcastle, created the website titled "Bill’s Cycli ...

on 20 December 2006, Jeanson said that although she could race again from mid-July 2007, she "won't race ever again." She said she had "changed so much this past year that I have a hard time imagining who I was before." She finally admitted to doping to a French CBC journalist. Her coach André Aubut and doctor Maurice Duquette were banned for life by the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport in 2009.

2014 Movie

The Little Queen ''The Little Queen'' (french: La Petite Reine) is a Canadian sports drama film, directed by Alexis Durand-Brault and released in 2014.T'cha Dunlevy, "Behind the shame; La petite reine is inspired by Quebec cyclist Genevieve Jeanson, who admitted ta ...

(La Petite reine)'', a movie inspired by her life, was released in 2014. Jeanson’s character is renamed Julie Arseneau (played by

Laurence Leboeuf Laurence Charlotte Leboeuf (born December 13, 1985) is a Canadian actress. Biography Leboeuf was born on December 13, 1985 in Montreal, Quebec. She went to École Notre-Dame-de-Grâce for elementary and later on, she went to Villa Maria for hig ...

Major results

;1998 :3rd Time Trial, UCI Junior Road World Championships :National Junior Road Championships ::1st MaillotCan

Road Race ::1st MaillotCan

Time Trial ;1999 : UCI Junior Road World Championships ::1st Jersey rainbow

Road Race ::1st Jersey rainbow chrono

Time Trial :National Junior Road Championships ::1st MaillotCan

Road Race ::1st MaillotCan

Time Trial ;2000 :1st Jersey yellow

Overall Tour de Snowy :1st

:2nd Time Trial, National Road CHampionships ;2001 :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stages 1, 3, 4 & 6 :1st Jersey pink

Overall

::1st Stages 1, 2, 3 & 5 :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Tour de Toona The International Tour de Toona was a stage bicycle race held in Central Pennsylvania in July from 1987 until 2011. The event became the largest pro-am cycling event in North America and had stages spanning Blair, Cambria, Bedford, and Somerset C ...

::1st Prologue & Stage 4 :1st La Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal :National Road Championships ::2nd Time Trial ::3rd Road Race ;2002 :1st MaillotCan

Time Trial, National Road CHampionships :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Women's Challenge The Women's Challenge bicycle race (originally known as the Ore-Ida Women's Challenge as the lead sponsor was the Ore-Ida brand of frozen potato products) was held annually in the western United States in southern Idaho, beginning in 1984 until i ...

::1st Stage 5 :1st Prologue Le Tour du Grand Montréal :2nd Overall

:1st Stage 1 :2nd Overall

::1st Stages 1, 2, 3 & 5 :3rd La Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal ;2003 :National Road Championships ::1st MaillotCan

Road Race ::2nd Time Trial :1st Jersey yellow

Overall Pomona Valley Stage Race ::1st Stages 1 & 2 :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stages 2, 3 & 5 :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Sea Otter Classic The Sea Otter Classic is a bicycling and outdoor sports festival and exposition held each spring since 1991 at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. The four-day event is considered the world's largest cycling festival, ...

::1st Stages 1 & 2 :1st Jersey pink

Overall

::1st Stages 1, 2 & 3 :1st La Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal :1st Prologue Le Tour du Grand Montréal :2nd Overall

::1st Stages 1 & 4 ;2004 :1st La Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal :1st Stage 4

:2nd Overall

::1st Prologue & Stage 1 ;2005 :National Road Championships ::1st MaillotCan

Road Race ::2nd Time Trial :1st Jersey yellow

Overall

:1st La Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal :2nd Overall

::1st Stage 1 :3rd Overall Valley of the Sun Stage Race