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Canadian Sports Hall of Fame to induct Alison Sydor

published 14 April 2013

Multi-time world champion and Olympic medallist honored

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Canada's Alison Sydor practises on the Parnitha mountain bike course, the site for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004(Image credit: AFP)

Medalist in the first Olympic mountain bike competition in 1996 (L-R) Canada's Alison Sydor, silver; Itlay's Paola Pezzo, gold; and Susan de Mattei of the US bronze, show their medals(Image credit: AFP)

Alison Sydor of Canada (C) holds the trophy aloft after winning the World Cup Mountain Bike event in Sydney, Australia in 1999(Image credit: AFP)

Alison Sydor of Canada powers to victory in winning the World Cup Mountain Bike event in Sydney, Australia in 1999(Image credit: AFP)

Former Canadian cycling national team member Alison Sydor will be inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2013 at the Hall of Fame Celebrations ceremony to be held in Toronto on October 16th.

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Sydor, born in Edmonton, Alberta, who now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, represented Canada at three Olympic Games, winning the silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She also became the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in mountain biking.

"We congratulate an outstanding athlete who has blazed the trail and inspired a whole new generation of women cyclists. Today, thanks in part to the outstanding work done by Alison Sydor, Canada's Mountain Bike program is known to be a powerful threat at any international competition," said Greg Mathieu, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General of Cycling Canada.

"The induction into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is an extraordinary accomplishment deserving our most sincere recognition. We take this opportunity to congratulate all inductees that have pioneered and promoted Canadian Sports."

Sydor is a three-time world champion (1994, 1995, 1996) with a total of 11 world championships medals, in both mountain bike and road cycling. Prior to her mountain bike career, Sydor won the bronze medal at the 1991 UCI Road World Championships.

In other major international events, Sydor won three medals, including two gold medals at Pan-American Games (1995 and 2003) and two medals at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Sydor was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, and into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2007. For two consecutive years, 1995 and 1996, Sydor received the Velma Sprinstead Trophy awarded to Canada's top female athlete.