Georgia Simmerling

Georgia Simmerling

Winning the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Born (1989-03-11) 11 March 1989
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Weight 67 kg (148 lb; 10.6 st)
Sport
Club Mont-Orignal, Lac-Etchemin
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Track cycling
Summer Olympics
2016 Rio de Janeiro Team pursuit
World Championships
2016 London Team pursuit

Georgia Simmerling (born 11 March 1989) is a Canadian alpine, skicross skier, and track cyclist. She won a bronze medal in team pursuit cycling at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Simmerling also won a silver medal in team pursuit at the 2016 World Championships. She is the first Canadian to compete in three different sports in three different Olympic Games.[1]

Personal life

Simmerling grew up ski racing on the North Shore of Vancouver at Grouse Mountain. She lives in West Vancouver and trains at Level 10 Fitness in North Vancouver and at the Olympic Athlete’s Training Centre in Whistler.

Athletics career

Alpine skiing

Simmerling represented Canada in alpine skiing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.[1] She was a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team for the previous five years, however she suffered a catastrophic injury in 2011. Simmerling sustained a concussion as well as suffering MCL injuries in both knees.[1]

Skicross

In the spring of 2011 she decided to switch to ski cross from alpine skiing. During the next season she crashed out during a race and broke three vertebrae in her neck and back. She was in an upper body neck brace for seven weeks.[1] Simmerling competed for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in ski cross where she made it as far as the 1/8 finals.[1]

Track cycling

After suffering a wrist injury in ski cross competition, Simmerling switched to competitive track cycling.[1] After having plates and screws inserted in her wrist from her surgery, she started training on the bike within a week of suffering the wrist injury.[1] Simmerling won a gold medal in team pursuit on her debut on the World Cup tour with Jasmin Glaesser, Laura Brown, and Steph Roorda. She would go on to win silver at the 2015 UCI Track World Championships with Glaesser, and new teammates Allison Beveridge and Kirsti Lay.[1]

Simmerling participated as part of Canada's 2016 Olympic team in track cycling.[2] Simmerling became the first Canadian athlete to compete at the Olympics in three different sports.[3][4] There she cycled to a bronze medal in the team pursuit with Glaesser, Beveridge, Lay, and Brown.[5] After the win she announced that she would begin training for ski cross again at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Georgia Simmerling". Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  2. ↑ Tozer, Jamie (29 June 2016). "Returning Olympians highlight Canada's cycling team". www.olympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  3. ↑ A league of her own: Georgia Simmerling heading to 3rd Olympics in 3rd sport
  4. ↑ Simmerling, Georgia (July 2016). "Georgia Simmerling's quest for Olympic medal takes her on historic road: Cyclist set to become 1st Canadian woman to compete in 3 different sports at the Olympics". CBC Sports. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Open-door policy helps Canada win cycling bronze at Rio Olympics: Feschuk". Toronto Star. August 13, 2016.

See also

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