Time Trial, Individual, Women

The world’s greatest women road racer was Jeannie Longo (FRA), whose palmares are too numerous to list. Suffice to say she was World Champion in 1995 both in the road race and the road time trial. Thirteen days before the Atlanta time trial, she had finally managed to win Olympic gold in the road race. The contenders to her crown were Clara Hughes (CAN) and Kathy Watt (AUS) who had joined Longo on the podium in this event at the 1995 Worlds. The threesome would finish 2-3-4 in the event, Longo winning silver, and Hughes bronze. The gold medal in the race went to Russia’s Uzbeki-born Zulfiya Zabirova, who was completely unknown. But she would finish second at the World Championships in 1997-98, win the world title in 2002, and was third in 2004. Clara Hughes won bronze medals in 1996 in both the road time trial and the mass start road race. She competed again in cycling at Sydney with less success. In 2002 Hughes competed at the Winter Olympics as a speed skater, winning a bronze medal in the 5,000, and she would win two speed skating medals at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. She was the second woman, after Christa Luding-Rothenburger (GDR/GER), to win medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympics.