Alison Jane Sydor (born September 9, 1966) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired professional cross-country mountain cyclist. She began cycling at age 20 and is a graduate of the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

. She won a silver medal at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in mountain bike, and has won three world mountain bike championships gold medals (1994 in

Vail, Colorado Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the num ...

; 1995 in

Kirchzarten Kirchzarten is a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in the federal-state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. A Zionist agricultural training farm was founded in Kirchzarten in 1919 to prepare young people to become farme ...

, Germany; and 1996 in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Australia) and the 2002 relay race in

Kaprun Kaprun () is a municipality in the Zell am See District in the state of Salzburg, Austria. The town is a tourist destination known as "Zell am See-Kaprun" with the neighbouring Zell am See and known for the glacier Kitzsteinhorn. Geography It is ...

, Austria. Sydor has also won five silver medals (1992, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003) and three bronze (1998, 1999 (relay race), 2004) at mountain bike world championships, and one bronze at the road world championships (1991). In addition, Sydor has won 17 World Cup (cross-country) races in her career, and for 13 consecutive years (1992–2004) never finished outside of the top-5 at the world championships. In 1995 and 1996, Sydor was awarded the

Velma Springstead Trophy The Velma Springstead Trophy is an award presented annually to Canada's outstanding female athlete. It is named in honour of track athlete Velma Springstead whose career ended prematurely when she died from pneumonia in 1927 when only 20 years old. ...

as Canada's top female athlete. In September 2007 Sydor was inducted into the

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (MBHOF) was founded in 1988 to chronicle the history of mountain biking. Formerly located in Crested Butte, Colorado, it relocated to Fairfax, California in 2014 and became part of the Marin Museum of Bicycling. Si ...

. In December 2007 it was announced that Sydor would be inducted into British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2008 at a ceremony on May 29, 2008. Sydor and teammate Pia Sundstedt won the Women's Category 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 ...

in 2008. Sydor then came back to win the Mixed Category with Nico Pfitzenmaier in 2009. In 2013, Sydor was inducted into

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (french: Panthéon des sports canadiens; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canad ...

Major results

;

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships 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 ...

* Gold Medal (Cross Country: 1994, 1995, 1996; Team Relay: 2002) * Silver Medal (Cross Country: 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003) * Bronze Medal (Cross Country: 1998, 2004; Team Relay: 1999) ;

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and a mixed team relay. Events ...

* Bronze Medal (1991) ; Summer Olympics * Silver Medal (

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

) * 4th Place (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

) * 5th Place (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

) ; Commonwealth Games * Silver Medal (Team Time Trial:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

) * Bronze Medal (Road Race:

) ; Pan American Games * Gold Medal (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

) * Silver Medal (

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

) ; Absa

* 1st Place Ladies Category 2008 * 1st Place Mixed Category 2009

References

External links

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame entry
* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sydor, Alison 1966 births Living people Canadian female cyclists Cross-country mountain bikers Cyclists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 1999 Pan American Games Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Canada Olympic medalists in cycling Olympic silver medalists for Canada Sportspeople from Edmonton Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics UCI Mountain Bike World Champions (women) Canadian mountain bikers Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Canada Pan American Games medalists in cycling Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Cyclists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games