Yolande Speedy (born December 30, 1976 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

) is a South African professional mountain biker. She has claimed two gold medals in the women's elite cross-country race at the African Mountain Bike Championships (2007 and 2013), and also represented her nation

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

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 Na ...

. In 2007 Speedy competed in the Absa

Cape Epic The Absa Cape Epic, founded by Kevin Vermaak and also known as the Cape Epic, is an annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa. First staged in 2004, it has been accredited as ''hors catégorie'' (beyond categoriza ...

Mixed Category with team mate Paul Cordes, winning the category. She claimed 1st place again in 2013, this time in the Women's Category with team mate Catherine Williamson. Throughout her sporting career, Speedy has been training as an amateur rider for the IMC Racing Activeworx Mountain Biking Team, until she turned professional in 2010 and thereby raced for more than three seasons on . Speedy qualified for the South African squad, as a lone female rider, in the women's cross-country race at the

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

by finishing first and receiving an automatic berth from the UCI African Championships and by recording dominant triumphs in the final stage of the Mazda MTN National Cross-Country Series in

Nelspruit Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River (Mpumalanga), Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, ea ...

. With only two laps left to complete the race, Speedy suffered from a heat-related fatigue, and instead decided to pull off directly from the course, finishing only in twenty-second place.

References

External links

NBC 2008 Olympics profile
* * 1976 births Living people South African female cyclists Cross-country mountain bikers Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of South Africa Cyclists from Johannesburg {{SouthAfrica-cycling-bio-stub