Claire Michel
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Belgian, American | ||||||||||||
| Born |
13 October 1988 Brussels, Belgium | ||||||||||||
| Residence | Brussels, Belgium | ||||||||||||
| Education | University of Oregon, Solvay Business School | ||||||||||||
| Height | 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 54 kg (119 lb) | ||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||
| Country | Belgium | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Triathlon | ||||||||||||
| Club | Brussels Triathlon Club (BTC) | ||||||||||||
| Turned pro | 2015 | ||||||||||||
Medal record
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Claire Michel (born 13 October 1988 in Brussels) is a Belgian professional triathlete.[1] She is the 2013 Aquathlon vice-World Champion. She has been named Belgian Triathlon's Female Athlete of the Year twice, in 2014[2] and 2015,[3] part of the National Team and among the few Belgian athletes competing for the honor to represent Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
Personal life
Michel was born in Brussels from Belgian parents: her mother, Colette Crabbé, represented Belgium in 1976 Montreal Olympics Games in swimming.[4]
At the age of one year she moved to Oregon, where she obtained the Bachelor of Arts at University of Oregon in 2011. She then moved back to Belgium, where she worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels and she completed "Advanced Masters in Innovation and Strategic Management" in 2014 at the Solvay Business School.[5][6]
She lives in Brussels where she is representing the Brussels Triathlon Club.
Career
Michel started her sport career at 12 years, after reading about her mother competing in Montreal Olympics, representing her high-school in swimming competitions. At 17 she also started competing in cross-country running, immediately becoming one of the top Junior athlete in Oregon, both in cross-country and 3.000 meters. She then joined the University of Oregon athletic team thanks to a scholarship for her sport results. She set a 3,000 meter steeplechase school-record and got 8th place in the NCAA Championship in 2011.[7][8] A stress fracture prevented her from qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics games.
In 2012 she shifted to triathlon, and joined the Brussels Triathlon Club. She became Belgian Champion on the Sprint distance in 2012. In her second year of triathlon she competed in five ITU events, winning the silver medal at the ITU Aquathlon World Championships in London.
In 2014, while still finishing her post master at Solvay University, she competed in both World Triathlon Series and World Cup races: her best positions of the year were a 3rd place in Chengdu World Cup race, and a 6th place in Yokohama. She finished the year in 33rd position in the World Triathlon Series ranking, first female Belgian.[9] During the conference Triathlon World she has been elected as female "Athlète de l'année 2014".
In 2015 Michel started competing as professional triathlete, with a 24th position in the second race of the 2015 World Cup in New Plymouth, 1'40" behind race winner Kaitlin Donner and with 4th place in the running section, just 6 seconds behind the winner.[10] In the second race of the season she had a bike crash and she had to abandon the race; the same happened in the 3rd race of the season in Cape Town, and sprained foot ligaments forced Michel to miss the Far-East section of the World Cup and World Series, and drop out from the Olympic Qualification List for Rio.
Back to races after the injuries, she finished 17th in London, just a minute from race winner Gwen Jorgensen.[11] A few weeks later she represented Belgium at the First European Games in Baku. Michel arrived 8th in the Women competition, a bit less than 4 minutes behind race winner Nicola Spirig. She was around the 30th position after T2, but thanks to the 6th split in the run fraction she overtook most of chase pack, finishing in the top 10.[12] Unfortunately, slipping on a pool in Baku, she injured again the same foot and suffered a broken metatarsal, putting her out of competition for two months.[13]
Returned to racing in August, Michel finished 4th in Riga Sprint ETU race, but problems with foot and difficult weather conditions didn't allow her to compete at top of her form in the last 3 races of the World Triathlon Series. The last three races of the season were a different story: she always finished in the top 15, with the highlight of the 9th position in Cozulem, and she was always among the first top 5 times in the running fraction. These end season performances gave a big boost to her rankings as she finished the year at the 57th position in ITU Point list[14] and 58th in the ITU Olympic Qualification List,[15] and back into the athletes going to Rio 2016. And she was again awarded the Belgian Triathlon female "Athlète de l'année 2015".
The Olympic year didn't start very well for Michel, finishing the first 4 races of 2016 always at the bottom of the standings, always due to bad performances in the bike fraction. This negative trend ended in Chengdu where, despite a bad swim fraction which put her 1'18" behind the best swimmer Summer Cook, she was able to catch the right "bike train", arrive in T2 in the first group, and run herself in the first second position of her career, 36 seconds behind the winner Cook.[16]
Results
Claire Michel's ITU and ETU race results are:[17]
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References
- ↑ "Claire Michel". triathlon.org. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ↑ "Athlète de l’année (Femme, Homme et Espoir)". http://www.lbftd.be/. Retrieved 20 March 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "Honored to be selected Female Triathlete of the Year". https://www.facebook.com/. Retrieved 26 November 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "Colette Crabbe Bio, Stats, and Results". www.sports-reference.com.
- ↑ "Claire Michel profile". http://be.linkedin.com. Retrieved 20 March 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "Claire Michel, le triathlon quatre à quatre (interview to Clarie Michel)". Le Soir. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ↑ "Claire Michel bio". Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ↑ "NCAA Division I Championships 2011 Women's 3000 Steeplechase". Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ↑ "2014 Women World Triathlon Series Rankings" (PDF). Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ↑ "2015 New Plymouth ITU Triathlon World Cup : Mar 22 2015 : Elite Women : Results". Retrieved 22 March 2015.
- ↑ "2015 ITU World Triathlon London : May 31 2015 : Elite Women : Results". Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ↑ "Baku 2015 European Games - Triathlon - Women". Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ↑ "Diagnosis: fracture of the 2nd metatarsal & part of the 3rd. 2 months no running, but I can swim & bike". Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ↑ "ITU Points List". Retrieved 26 November 2015.
- ↑ "ITU Olympic Qualification List". Retrieved 26 November 2015.
- ↑ "Cook with winning recipe in Chengdu". Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ↑ "Claire Michel Results". International Triathlon Union. Retrieved 16 April 2016.