NEFF Jolanda

Type of rider
Climber (nzz.ch, 29 May 2016)

General
METEORIC RISE
She began racing at U23 level in 2012 when she was age 19, and won world and European titles in the age group that year. After one season competing at U23, she began racing in senior World Cup events. "Most people do four years in U23 or maybe move up one year early, but not three years early." She won the overall 2014 World Cup women's cross-country title as the youngest rider ever to do so, and in 2015 at age 22, she was allowed by the International Cycling Federation [UCI] to take part in the senior world championships after winning three consecutive U23 world titles. "I guess because I wanted it so bad, I just went for it. Something that always helped me was my technique, especially when you think about it six years ago [2014], the bikes and components weren't as advanced as they are now. I think skills were even more important. We have a lot of technical hiking trails in Switzerland where I grew up and where I train so I think that always helped me." (pinkbike.com, 10 Apr 2020)

TOKYO PREPARATION
In 2019 she spent seven weeks training at the mountain bike course in Izu City, Japan, that will be used for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. After the seven weeks she won gold in the Ready Steady Tokyo test event. "It is so important for me and I'm so happy because [before the 2016 Olympic Games] in Rio I didn't go to the test event and I regretted not going. The climbs are very steep and you need to find a good pace in the whole climb. The key on this track here is the technical sections, to be able to ride them clean, safe and precise. And that takes a lot of practice. You need to train on this trail all the time." (readysteady.tokyo2020.org, 09 Oct 2019)

MAGAZINE
In 2020 she launched an online quarterly magazine called Trois Mois, featuring updates on her career and daily life. She donates proceeds from subscriptions to the magazine to the Swiss cancer charity Greenhope. "It was not originally my idea, but once I began writing a newsletter for my sponsor my writing flow did not stop. Then one day it came to my mind that it would be the right thing to do, to write a magazine. At the beginning it was very stressful to put all that work together, but I enjoyed writing and designing so much that I decided to continue." (jolandaneff.ch, 13 May 2020; trois-mois.ch, 13 May 2020; YouTube channel, 07 Apr 2020)

She became the first female Swiss athlete to compete in mountain bike and road cycling at the same edition of the Olympic Games when she participated in both sports at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. (SportsDeskOnline, 29 May 2020)

At age 21 years and 231 days, she became the youngest female mountain biker to win an overall World Cup title in cross-country when she secured victory in the 2014 edition. (pinkbike.com, 10 Apr 2020; SportsDeskOnline, 28 May 2020)