article by Nicholas Pucci
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a new specialty in the cycling program made its debut in the five-circle landscape, namely mountain biking (or BTM as it is abbreviated), and Italy”drop an ace” unknown to most, while in the environment it has already made itself more than widely asserted, namely the Veronese from Bosco Chiesanuova Paola Pezzo, born in 1969.
Coming from cross-country skiing, where she had also placed second in an Italian Championship behind Stefania Belmondo, since 1988 the Pezzo “embrace” la mountain bike, taking the first important laurel with the victory at the Metabief World Championships in 1993, in France, followed by the gold at the European Championships the following yearcuriously in the same transalpine location.
With these credentials, la Pezzo is logically in the small batch of contenders for the Olympic podium, even if the underdogs in Atlanta go to Canadian Alison Sydorwho succeeded Pezzo as world champion in 1994 (Vail), 1995 (Kirchzarten) and 1996 (Cairns), while the emerging Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle arouses curiosity, much younger than her rivals having been born in 1973.
On July 30, 1996, the race took place over a distance of 31.8 km per Georgia International Horse Park a Conyers, e the race doesn’t seem to be going well for the blue, who suffers a crash on the first lap and a mechanical failure forces him to climb on foot. The twenty-seven year old from Veneto certainly does not give up, she makes use of the experience gained when she practiced cross-country skiing, she keeps her calm and, on a very hot day that weakens the resistance of her opponents, comeback position after position up to go to triumph alone in the time of 1.50’51 “, beating the three-time world champion Sydor by more than 1 ‘, with the bronze prerogative of the home athlete, the American Susan De Matteiwhich precedes Dahle herself.
That of Pezzo does not remain an isolated exploit, since the following year Paola won her second world title at Chateaux d’Oexbeating compatriot Nadia De Negri, followed by the bronze medals of Are in 1999 and of Sierra Nevada in 2000, in both cases behind the Spanish Margarita Fullana and Sydor, before to stake the Olympic victory at the Sydney 2000 Games.
Obviously, when he shows up at the start of the mountain bike test La Pezzo has a very different status than it had four years earlierhaving a bulletin board full of titles (add to what has already been mentioned, two more victories at the European Championships, in 1996 in Bassano del Grappa and in 1999 in Porto de Mos, in addition to the general classification of the World Cup in 1997 when he won eight of the ten tests envisaged), e he can run with the right dose of light-heartedness of someone who has nothing left to prove. In fact, she is the undisputed number one in the specialty even if there is certainly no shortage of opponents.
Starting with the Spanish Marga Fullana and the Canadian Alison Sydor, who beat her precisely at the last two world championship events in Are and Sierra Nevada, to continue with Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahlefourth in Atlanta and second at the Mont Sainte-Anne World Championships in 1998, and that in the future she will be the only one, like Pezzo, to be able to boast victory in the World Cup, the Olympics and the World Cup.
On September 23, 2000, 30 female athletes set off to complete a course measuring 35.5 kilometers in the Fairfield City Farm of Abbotsbury. After the Swiss Barbara Blatter led at the start, it was Fullana who leapt to the lead during the third lapsignificantly increasing the pace. La Pezzo is in pursuit of himthis time without the “famous” cleavage that had made her famous (as well as for the sporting feat) in Atlanta, ed in a downhill stretch the two opponents touch, with the Iberian falling giving the green light to the Veronese. La Pezzo, who will reject Fullana’s accusations of having voluntarily dropped her, flies to conquer his second gold medal and thus closes a career that four years later, in Athens 2004, will have a further Olympic parenthesis, albeit with a sad retirement due to physical problems in a race won by Gunn-Rita Dahle.
And if to date she is still the only woman to have won two golds in the individual event… beh, Paola Pezzo can truly be considered the queen of mountain biking.
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2023-08-19 14:26:26
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