After the Gold
Olympic Mountain Bike Racer Paola Pezzo on Success and Fame
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It's been a big year for mountain-bike rider Paola Pezzo. The 27-year-old from Bosco Chiesanuvo, Italy, became the first-ever Olympic mountain bike gold-medalist last July in Georgia when she took first place in the hotly contested women's cross country event. Pezzo followed up just two weeks later by winning the European mountain-bike championship. The unprecedented combination of titles has made the blonde racer a national hero in her native Italy and a sought after celebrity worldwide. With more than enough to keep her occupied, Pezzo decided against traveling to Australia for the World Championships and instead visited Interbike 1996 in Anaheim, California, where the Mountain Zone caught up with her. Interbike '96 Before taking off on a four-hour early-morning training ride-on the same bike that carried her to a gold medal-Pezzo took a moment to discuss training, fame and her future with The Mountain Zone. She credited her strong showing in Atlanta to a demanding interval training regimen, which gave her the upper hand when the heat grew intense. And she had the perspicacity to take it easy on the days leading up to the final. Pezzo added that she relaxed a little after the gold medal, but was able to muster the drive to take the European championships as well. But the price of fame has taken its toll. She didn't expect to win the gold medal, but once she did, things got more difficult-the attention and notoriety has surprised here. The fact that she became a star outside the realm of mountain biking was perhaps most surprising. "After a while," she said, "it gets pretty tiring. You just say, 'enough.'" At 27, Pezzo isn't through competing. Next year, her objective is to win the World Cup. She placed third in that competition in '96and hopes that by winning it she can prove her gold medal was no fluke. -- Peter Potterfield, Mountain Zone staff

Voice of a Champion Paola Pezzo, here with the gold-medal bike, spoke to The Mountain Zone in Italian through a translator: What let you go strong through the heat that stopped other Olympic competitors? Did you struggle with regaining motivation for other races after the Olympics? Has winning Olympic-gold changed you? Do you get tired of people like me wanting to talk to you? What's your plan for next year?

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You can also hear Olympic silver-medalist and World Cup Champion, Alison Sydor, and Olympic bronze-medalist, Susan DeMattei, both interviewed by Peter Graves for The Mountain Zone AudioChat.