Women in sports are a common phenomenon in the modern world. After all, systematic training energises the body, relieves the nervous system and strengthens immunity. In addition, many women do sports on a professional level and achieve great results. In this article, we will talk about the famous English athlete Elizabeth Deignan, who became the world champion in road racing in 2015. Learn more about the athlete’s success story at leedska.
What do we know about Elizabeth Deignan?
The athlete was born in Otley, near Leeds, in 1988. There, Lizzie attended Prince Henry’s Grammar School. The girl took up sports in 2004 and the following year, Deignan won a silver medal in scratch races at the Junior World Track Championship. She also became the European champion in the under-23 scratch races in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Lizzie also won silver at the Points Race and won seven gold medals at the 2008–09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics.
Progress in road racing
Elizabeth Deignan continues to develop as a professional athlete. She has become very successful in road racing. In 2008, the athlete was part of the team that delivered Nicole Cooke to the gold medal in road racing at the World Championships in Italy. In 2009, she joined the Lotto–Belisol Ladiesteam cycling team. That year, Elizabeth participated in several high-level road races. She won the British National Road Race Championships in the under-23 category. In addition, there was another victory in the Giro d’Italia youth classification.
Then she got back to the track and won two gold medals at the Manchester round of the Track Cycling World Cup Classics. Subsequently, the athlete won two silver medals at the Track Cycling World Championships. In 2010, Deignan won three stages of the Tour de l’Ardèche and a silver medal in the road race at the Commonwealth Games.
2012 turned out to be very productive for Lizzie too. That year, she competed for the AA Drink–leontien.nl team, but the most important event was yet to come. Elizabeth won a silver medal in the road race at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
After that, the athlete signed a contract with the Boels–Dolmans team for the 2013 season. However, then Lizzie was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia. Nevertheless, she won the British National Road Race Championships in Glasgow. Within a year, Deignan won the first race of the World Cup. In 2014, she won the women’s road race at the Commonwealth Games. On August 24, 2014, the athlete won the UCI Women’s Road Race World Cup. A year later, she won gold medals at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio one-day World Cup races, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and the Holland Hills Classic.
The 2015 season was very successful for the athlete. She won the British National Road Racing Championships for the third time, the final race of the World Cup season, the GP de Plouay and the World Championship Road Race at Richmond. Thus, Elizabeth Deignan won the World Road Race title after Beryl Burton, Mandy Jones and Nicole Cooke.
Numerous victories
Then Lizzie prepared for the 2016 Olympic Games, but she came 5th. In addition, that year, Deignan was charged with missing three drug tests in a 12-month period. It could have resulted in a four-year ban. However, fortunately, everything was sorted out.
2017 wasn’t the best year for Elizabeth. She faced health problems again, but still won gold on home ground at the Tour de Yorkshire, the British National Championships on the Isle of Man and a fourth title among the senior national road races.
At the 2020 Olympics, Deignan finished 11th in the race. However, that year, she won at the Paris–Roubaix Femmes. Elizabeth Deignan became the first woman to win a “Triple Crown” of all women’s Monument Classics.
As for the athlete’s personal life, she married cyclist Philip Deignan in 2016 and the couple had two children.
Elizabeth Deignan is a professional athlete with many victories and successful performances. Thanks to her perseverance, Lizzie has repeatedly glorified Great Britain at the world level.
We hope that our article was informative and you learned more about the sports achievements of the famous athlete.
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