Filip Meirhaeghe

Filip Meirhaeghe (born 5 March 1971) is a retired Belgian racing cyclist. His primary focus was in mountain bike racing, however, he has also taken part in elite road, cyclo-cross and track cycling. He has won four Mountain Bike World Championships medals, He wrote a book called Positief, which tells the story of his life as an athlete and the consequences of his positive test. (issued by Davidsfonds – in Dutch only).

End of retirement Filip was suspended from professional racing until 14 January 2006 based on his positive test result. On 1 January 2006, he announced he would resume racing. He signed a three-year contract to race for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago on the road and Versluys-Landbouwkrediet-Sportstech on mountain bikes. He made his comeback during the beach-race of Oostduinkerke (Belgium). He retired again in September 2009.

Major racing achievements 2000 Summer Olympics Silver: 2000 – Sydney (AUS) Mountain Bike World Championships Gold: 2003 – Lugano (SUI) Silver: 2002 – Kaprun (AUT) Bronze: 1998 – Mont Sainte-Anne (CAN) Bronze: 1999 – Åre (SWE) Mountain Bike World Cup Winner: 2002 European XC MTB Championships Champion: 2000 Belgian XC MTB Championships Champion: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001 Belgian Downhill National Championships Champion 1994 Paris–Roubaix mountain bike Winner: 1997, 2002