Year 10 student, Zoe Backstedt is a double European Youth Olympic champion after winning gold in the time trial and road race at the European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan that took place in July 2019.
Zoe won a gold medal in the 10km time trial on Tuesday 23rd July and backed that up two days later with another gold medal in the 50km road race. In winning both events, Zoe becomes the first female to win both the time trial and road race at an Olympic event and only the third cyclist after Bernhard Eisel (Austrian current professional cyclist) and Elia Viviani (Italian current professional cyclist) to win two road cycling events at the same Games.
Zoe said winning the double Gold medals was her “greatest achievement to date” and competing in Baku was “an amazing experience as I had the opportunity to watch other sports at the Games such as gymnastics and judo. I had the opportunity to meet other athletes and discuss how they train”.
Since competing in Baku, Zoe has won 4 titles in the Track National competition in Newport and will competing soon in the National Series in Derby. Zoe will be too young to compete in the Olympic Games in 2020 so has her sights firmly set on Paris in 2024.
