Mariana Pajón


Mariana Pajón Londoño ODB is a Colombian cyclist, two-time Olympic gold medalist and BMX World Champion.
She won her first national title at age of 5 and her first world title at 9. Overall, she is the winner of 14 world championships, 2 national championships in the United States, 9 Latin American Championships and 10 Pan American championships. She also won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, on 10 August 2012, as well as in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. She is the first Colombian to win two Olympic gold medals. Pajón's achievements in BMX have earned her the nickname "Queen of BMX".
She was selected to be the flag-bearer for Colombia at the 2012 Summer Olympics at the Opening Ceremony.

BMX Olympic champion

London 2012

After being the flag-bearer for Colombia during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pajón's first participation in the BMX event resulted in the first gold medal for Colombia during the 2012 games and the second overall in Colombia's participation in the Olympics.
After achieving a splendid 1st position in all three runs of the Semifinals, Pajón won with a time of 37.706 seconds during the final.

Rio 2016

In the 2016 Olympic Games Pajón defended her title and won her second Olympic gold medal and fifth overall for Colombia. With this victory, Pajón became the first Colombian athlete to win two gold medals.

Awards

Olympics

Mariana Pajón Londoño was born in Medellín, Colombia, on October 10, 1991, daughter of Carlos Mario Pajón and Claudia Londoño, who were also athletes in their youth. She studied at the Sacred Heart Montemayor Catholic school in Rionegro, near to Medellín.
Mariana learned to ride a bicycle when she was three years old. When she was four she began to perform her first training on the track, and had her first race, in which she competed against children of five and six years-of-age since there was no suitable category.
She was invited to the Youth Camp held during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On June 1, 2008, Mariana won the UCI BMX World Championship 2008, held in Taiyuan, China, in Junior Women's Cruiser category. On the international tracks, the nickname of the atomic ant was won by its particular way of running, with explosion, rudeness and aggressiveness.