Although he was formally announced the official 1996 World Champion at this year's World Championships, Thomas Frischknecht (SUI, Ritchey-Yahoo!) never received the recognition that he sought from the UCI — until now. The sport's governing body issued a Communique de Presse at this weekend's World Cup downhill finals in Leysin, announcing that "Frischy" will receive the sort of official ceremony he felt was missing at the Worlds.

He was part of the 10-year celebration at the opening ceremonies and given a rainbow jersey, but the UCI had decided to pass on an official ceremony. Frischknecht was awarded the 1996 World Championship following Jerome Chiotti's admission of using performance-enhancing drug EPO to aid his win at the cross country race. Frischknecht was second at that race, and Rune Hoydahl (NOR, Giant) was third. Hubert Pallhuber (ITA, Diamondback) was fourth.

According to the release: "At the awards ceremony of the final of the UCI/Tissot Mountain bike Cross Country World Cup, which will take place on Sunday, September 3rd, 2000 in Lausanne, as part of the festivities to mark the Centenary of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the rainbow jersey and the gold medal for 1996 World Champion will be officially awarded to the Swiss rider Thomas Frischknecht."

By this brief but significant presentation, the UCI wishes to pay tribute to an athlete who was deprived of sporting success because of circumstances which did serious harm to the sporting equity of the competition concerned.

Thomas Frischknecht will be joined by Norwegian Rune Hoydahl and by the Italian Hubert Pallhuber, second and third, respectively, in the corrected final ranking of the 1996 Cross Country World Championships in Cairns, Australia, who will also receive their medals on this occasion.