Paola Pezzo

Together with Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå, Paola Pezzo is the only woman to have won World, Olympic and World Cup Championships in cross-country mountain biking. She won her World Championship gold medals in 1993 and 1997, adding bronzes in 1999 and 2000, and claimed the inaugural Olympic title at the Atlanta Olympics, retaining her title at the Sydney Games in 2000. She won the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 1997, winning no less than eight of the ten World Cup races. She retired after the Sydney Olympics, but returned in 2004, with much less success. Received in 1996 the Collare d’Oro for Sporting Merit from the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI).