Filip Meirhaeghe facts for kids
Filip Meirhaeghe at the start of Omloop het Volk in 2007.
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| Personal information | |||
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| Born | 5 March 1971 Ghent, Belgium |
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| Team information | |||
| Current team | Retired | ||
| Discipline | Road, Mountain bike | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Major wins | |||
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Filip Meirhaeghe (born March 5, 1971, in Ghent, Belgium) is a retired Belgian racing cyclist. He was most famous for his skills in mountain bike racing. However, he also competed in road, cyclo-cross, and track cycling events.
Filip won four medals at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. He also earned one Olympic medal. In total, he won eleven mountain bike World Cup events. Towards the end of his career, he raced for the bicycle company Specialized Bicycle Components. He also rode for the professional road team Domina Vacanze-Elitron.
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A Difficult Time
On July 29, 2004, just before the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Filip Meirhaeghe admitted to using a banned substance. He had tested positive during a World Cup event in Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada. Unlike many athletes, he did not try to deny the test results.
During a press conference, he explained that he used the substance because he really wanted to win a gold medal at the Olympics. At that time, he also announced that he would stop racing and retire from the sport. He later wrote a book called Positief (which means "Positive" in Dutch). The book shares his story as an athlete and what happened after his positive test.
Returning to Racing
Filip was not allowed to race professionally until January 14, 2006. But on January 1, 2006, he announced he would start racing again! He signed a three-year agreement to race for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago in road cycling. He also joined Versluys-Landbouwkrediet-Sportstech for mountain bike races.
His first race back was a beach race in Oostduinkerke, Belgium. He continued racing for a few more years. Filip Meirhaeghe finally retired from professional cycling again in September 2009.
Major Cycling Wins
Filip Meirhaeghe achieved many great things in his cycling career:
Olympic Games
- 2000 Summer Olympics
- Silver medal: 2000 – Sydney, Australia
Mountain Bike World Championships
- Gold medal: 2003 – Lugano, Switzerland
- Silver medal: 2002 – Kaprun, Austria
- Bronze medal: 1998 – Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada
- Bronze medal: 1999 – Åre, Sweden
Mountain Bike World Cup
- Overall Winner: 2002
European & Belgian Championships
- European XC MTB Champion: 2000
- Belgian XC MTB Champion: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001
- Belgian Downhill National Champion: 1994
Other Notable Wins
- Paris–Roubaix mountain bike race: 1997, 2002
See also
In Spanish: Filip Meirhaeghe para niños
- List of doping cases in cycling
- List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
