Anton Cooper
| File:Anton Cooper Oct 2012.jpg
Anton Cooper at the McLeans Island 12 Hour Day/Nighter, October 2012
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Anton Cooper |
| Nickname | Coops |
| Born | 11 August 1994 |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Mountain bike racing |
| Rider type | Cross-country |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 2012 | Trek World Racing |
| 2013– | Cannondale Factory Racing |
| Major wins | |
World U23 Cross-country Mountain bike champion
World Junior Cross-country Mountain bike champion  Men's cross-country 2014 Commonwealth Games |
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| Infobox last updated on 17 February 2013 |
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Anton Cooper (born 11 August 1994) is a New Zealand cross-country cyclist who races for the Cannondale Factory Racing.[1] He is the 2015 World Under 23 Cross-country Mountain bike champion and the 2012 World Junior Cross-country Mountain bike champion.[2]
Early life and education
Cooper is from Woodend, a town in the Waimakariri District 26 kilometres (16 mi) north of Christchurch.[3][4] His parents are Paul and Laila Cooper, and he has several sisters.[4][5] He received his education at Christchurch Boys' High School[3][6] and he graduated in 2012.[7]
Cycling career
Cooper started racing aged 11, encouraged by his father.[4] Apart from cross country riding, he enjoys cross country running and tennis.[4] Among other riders, he admires Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter, and among other athletes, he looks up to former rugby union player Richie McCaw, cricketer Brendon McCullum, and rowers Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.[4] Before receiving professional sponsorship, he was discovered as a strong talent by Christchurch adventure racers Steve Moffatt and Steve Gurney, who organised financial support from various business people.[8]
Significant wins in his career as an amateur include winning silver at the World mountain bike championships in Champéry, Switzerland in 2011,[6] and winning gold in the 2012 World mountain bike championships in Saalfelden, Austria.[9] Cooper is the first New Zealander who won a world championship in cross country cycling, and it was his last race before he turned professional.[9] He then won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, a race in which Sam Gaze from Rotorua, New Zealand, won silver, making it the first gold–silver win for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games.[3] Cooper then became Under 23 Cross-country world champion at the 2015 World mountain bike championships in Andorra.[10]
In December 2011, Cooper signed a sponsorship contract with the Trek Bicycle Corporation for 12 months.[7] Trek decided to focus on downhill racing and Cooper signed a contract with the Cannondale Bicycle Corporation in December 2012 for 24 months.[11]
Rules set by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for sports cycling, stipulate that mountain bikers must be at least 19 years old in the year Olympic Games are held to be allowed to compete. Cooper was outside of that requirement by eight months for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. BikeNZ, New Zealand's national governing body of cycle racing, sought a dispensation for Cooper but this was declined.[7] New Zealand has been given one quota place for a male mountain biker for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the general expectation that either Gaze or Cooper will be chosen.[12]
Palmarès
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- 2011
2nd Junior Cross-country – World mountain bike championships Champéry, Switzerland- 1st – Junior Cross-country World Cup Round 6 Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic
- 1st – Junior Cross-country World Cup Round 7 Val di Sole, Italy
- 1st – Karapoti Classic, Wellington, New Zealand; youngest ever overall winner
- 2012
1st Junior Cross-country – World mountain bike championships Saalfelden, Austria- 1st – Junior Cross-country World Cup Round 6 Windham, USA
- 1st – Junior Cross-country World Cup Round 5 Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada
- 1st – Junior Cross-country World Cup Round 1 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- 2013
1st Elite and U23 Cross-country – National mountain bike championships Rotorua, New Zealand- 1st – U23 Cross-country World Cup Round 5 Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada
- 2nd – U23 Cross-country World Cup Round 6 Hafjell, Norway
- 4th U23 Cross-country – World mountain bike championships Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- 2014
1st – Men's cross-country 2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland- 2015
- 1st Elite and U23 Cross-country – National mountain bike championships Rotorua, New Zealand
- 1st Under 23 Cross-country – World mountain bike championships Andorra
- 2016
- 1st – Oceania mountain bike cross country championships Queenstown, New Zealand
References
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anton Cooper. |
- Use British English from January 2012
- Use dmy dates from January 2012
- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- 1994 births
- Living people
- New Zealand mountain bikers
- Cross-country mountain bikers
- People from Canterbury, New Zealand
- People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand
