Jeannie Longo (born 31 October 1958) is a French racing cyclist, 60-time French champion and 13-time world champion. Longo began racing in 1975 and was active in cycling through 2012. She was once widely considered the best female cyclist of all time, although that reputation is now clouded by suspicion of doping throughout her career. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in the sport — when she was selected to compete for France in the 2008 Olympics, it was her seventh Olympic Games; some of Longo's competitors that year had not yet been born when she took part in her first Olympics in 1984. She had stated that 2008 would be her final participation in the Olympics. In the Women's road race, she finished 24th, 33 seconds behind winner Nicole Cooke, who was one year old when Longo first rode in the Olympics. At the same Olympics, she finished 4th in the road time trial, just two seconds shy of securing a bronze medal. She is currently number two on the all-time list of French female summer or winter Olympic medal winners, with a total of four medals including one in gold, which is one less than the total number won by the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic.
Longo was born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, in the French Alps where she began her athletic career as a downhill skier. After winning the French schools' ski championship and three university skiing championships, she switched to cycling at the urging of her coach (and later husband) Patrice Ciprelli. Within a few months, Longo won the French road race Championship at the age of 21. She competed both in road and track bicycle racing events, and is an Olympic gold-medalist and thirteen-time world champion.
In September 1987 Longo tested positive for ephedrine following a 3 km world record attempt in Colorado Springs. She served a 1-month ban for this offense.
In September 2011, it was reported that Longo had missed three doping tests and was under investigation by the FFC. Normally, this would be penalized the same as a positive test, but AFLD had failed to notify Longo that she would be targeted for testing in that year, so this resulted in them letting her off. It subsequently transpired that Longo's husband, Patrice Ciprelli, had purchased the performance-enhancing drug EPO from China via former American professional cyclist Joe Papp. Ciprelli confessed and claimed that he purchased the EPO for his own personal use. He was found guilty in May 2016, and given a 1 year suspended jail sentence and €12,800 in fines and costs.
Source: Article "Jeannie Longo" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
