Jana Horáková (born 4 September 1983 in

Prostějov Prostějov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is historically known for its fashion industry. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...

) is a Czech professional

BMX 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 ea ...

cyclist. Having started BMX racing at age fifteen, Horakova has claimed numerous Czech national titles, eight European championship titles (a conglomerate of under-12, junior, and elite), and more importantly, two bronze medals in the women's elite category at the

UCI World Championships The UCI World Championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winn ...

(2002 and 2007). She also represented her nation

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

at the

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

, and has been racing professionally for most of her sporting career on the Suzuki-RB Team, before signing an exclusive, three-year sponsorship contract with Duratec in 2010. Horakova qualified for the Czech squad, as a lone female rider, in women's BMX cycling at the

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

by receiving an automatic berth from the Czech Cycling Union based on her top-ten performance at the UCI BMX World Rankings. After she surprisingly grabbed an eighth seed on the morning prelims with a time of 38.077, Horakova could not match a stellar ride in her semifinal heat with 16 positioning points and a fifth-place finish, narrowly missing out the top-eight final by a two-point deficit. In September 2011, Horakova had tested positive for the banned substance

clenbuterol Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier. It is most comm ...

while participating in fourcross mountain biking at the World Championships. On 28 June 2012 the

Union Cycliste Internationale The Union Cycliste Internationale (; UCI; ) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues racing licenses to riders and enforces di ...

had officially decided to order Horakova a two-year suspension from the

, and more importantly, from the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, despite being appealed by the Czech Cycling Union earlier of that year.

References

External links

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Athlete Profile – Duratec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horakova, Jana 1983 births Living people Female BMX riders Czech female cyclists Olympic cyclists for the Czech Republic Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics UCI Mountain Bike World Champions (women) Sportspeople from Prostějov Cyclists from the Olomouc Region Czech sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in cycling