THE
FIRST EVER BRAZILIAN MOUNTAIN BIKE WOMAN TO QUALIFY FOR THE OLYMPICS
Jaqueline
Mourão
was born in 1975 in the mountainous city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil,
where she grew up with a very active lifestyle by being part of
many local clubs for swimming, gymnastics, athletics and playing
many team sports. She began cycling at age 15 and entered her
first mountain bike competition one year later. She represented
Brazil for the first time as a downhill racer at the 1997 World
Mountain Bike Championships in Château d'Oex, Switzerland.
The year after, she had a serious leg injury due to a
crash in a training run just before the 1998 National Downhill
Championships. From then on, she decided to focus only on endurance
training and racing mountain bike, triathlon and running competitions.
She did this while studying and working at the Federal University
of Minas Gerais where she completed a master's degree in physical
activity. In 2002, the Olympic Solidarity program
offered her a scholarship to be part of the
UCI World Cycling Center (CMC) in Aigle, Switzerland, as an assistant
coach. This also was an opportunity for her to extend her racing
ability with a full season of competition in Europe. After this
successful race season, Jaqueline started dreaming of being the
first ever Brazilian women to compete at the Summer Olympic Games
in the sport of Mountain Biking. She realized her dream the next
year by finishing 9th in the UCI World Ranking points system with
a strong 8th place finish at the 2003 World Mountain Bike Marathon
Championships. In addition to qualifying for the Olympic Games
of Athens in 2004, her two year experience with the CMC has given
her the opportunity to learn to speak English and French as well.
In 2005, Jaqueline became the first cyclist in brazilian history
to ever win a World Cup by crossing the finish line in Mont-Sainte-Anne
ahead of the double olympic champion, the italian Paola Pezzo,
during the mountain bike World Cup Marathon in Canada.
In 2007, the athlete was fourth at Pan American Games in Rio de
Janeiro and in 2008, she represent Brazil at the Summer Olympics
Games in Beijing. At the end of this year, she announced her retirement
in mountain bike and began to focus 100% on cross-country skiing.
However, it is a mistake to think that she would leave the bike.
The athlete has created the project "MTeenB" and each
year promotes national and international events to support young
Brazilian athletes who want to build a life in this sport.
Jaqueline, now with four Olympic Games participations (Vancouver
2010), continues to pursue excellence in sport and she has already
an eye on the Winter Olympics in Sochi (2014).