Chloé Dygert

Chloé Dygert ( KLOH-ee DYE-ghərt; born January 1, 1997) is an American professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Canyon–SRAM zondacrypto. She has won eight gold medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and four medals (one gold, one silver, and two bronze) at the Olympic Games. She also won the Women's junior road race and Women's junior time trial at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships.

Career

Chloé Dygert was athletic from childhood on and played mainly basketball in her early years. However, she did not take cycling seriously until after a shoulder injury in 2013. After another injury she was forced to retire from basketball. In 2015 she became national junior champion, in road racing and individual time trial, as well as two-time Junior World Champion in the same disciplines. Then she received an invitation from the US cycling federation USA Cycling.

In March 2016, Dygert started at the World Cup in London as a member of the US four-in-four team pursuit and won the world title with the team. In the same year, nineteen-year-old Dygert was nominated to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she won a silver medal in the team pursuit.

The 2016 Olympic Pursuit Team was marked by controversy. The head coach, Andy Sparks, was fired for fostering a hostile environment. Dygert supported Sparks and continued to work with him until 2018.

At the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong, she became World Champion in the team pursuit for the second time, along with Kelly Catlin, Jennifer Valente and Kimberly Geist and clinched the world title in the singles pursuit. In May 2017, she won her first Panamerican title, in the individual time trial on the road.

At the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Dygert won two titles: along with Kelly Catlin, Jennifer Valente and Kimberly Geist in the team pursuit and in the individual pursuit. She succeeded the victory in the individual pursuit in an outstanding manner: she set a world record two times in a row, in the qualification as well as in the final (3:20.060 minutes). Her record from the final caught the record of road cycling time-trial world champion, the Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten. In the Pan American Games in 2019 she won gold in the individual time trial.

On September 24, 2020, at the UCI Road World Championships, Dygert crashed during the women's time trial event, suffering a laceration to her left leg which required surgery. That November, Dygert signed a four-year contract with UCI Women's WorldTeam Canyon–SRAM, from the 2021 season.

Personal life

In November 2016, she married fellow professional cyclist Logan Owen and took his surname. The marriage ended in divorce in January 2020.

As of April 2024, Dygert was in a relationship with Axel Merckx, with whom she was living in Belgium.

A 2020 profile by her sponsor Red Bull noted that she is a conservative who does not believe in feminism.

Dygert issued a public apology in November 2020 for her social media conduct that was deemed inappropriate. Some criticized her apology as "not sufficient".