Lotte Kopecky receives another honor for her awesome season with a once-in-a-lifetime Belgian Sports Merit Award
Cycling
Lotte Kopecky is the winner of the 96th Belgian National Sports Merit Award. This was announced at Brussels town hall on Thursday afternoon. Kopecky succeeds speed skater and inline skater Bart Swings. A jury of (former) sports champions chooses the laureate, who can win the award only once in their career - this time it was Lotecky to receive the honor.
2024 was Kopecky's most successful season yet. The 28-year-old rider triumphed in one-day classics such as Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix, won the overall classification in the UAE Tour, the Tour of Britain, the Tour de Romandie and the Simac Ladies Tour. She's also won a stage and finished second overall at the Giro d'Italia Donne and the list goes on.
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Even more successful was her campaign in the Belgian national team colours. In August, Kopecky won bronze medal in the Olympic road race in Paris. However the best was yet to come the following month. Kopecky first crowned herself (rather surprisingly) European time trial champion and then went on to win the women's Road World Championships in Zurich - her second rainbow jersey in a row.
Not only restricting her talent road, the Belgian rider also is a force to be reckoned with in any discipline she lands her foot in. On track, Kopecky became double European champion, in the elimination and points race and is currently performing very strongly at the on-going Track Worlds, having taken silver in the elimination race. She also participated in the Gravel World Championship earlier this month, finishing second.
"She is a fantastic and versatile athlete and a deserved winner," said Jean-Michel Saive, the president of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC), echoes Belga News Agency "She is more than just an athlete," added jury member and former basketball player Ann Wauters. "She inspires young people and grows cycling in her own way."
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