Chrissy de Vall
TaG FOUNDER - MTB OLYMPIAN
Chrissy de Vall [Redden] is a force to be reckoned with. Originally hailing from Ontario, she is the second of 5 kids and dove into sports at an early age with cross country running, cross country skiing and track and field. Inspired by watching the Olympics and Tour de France on TV, Chrissy then tried cycling and immediately found a new love with mountain biking. As she started racing, she found her motivation to win as she trained harder and saw the payoff as her results improved.
From her dad “if you are going to do something, do it 100%”, to the Ontario provincial team coach Glenn Meeuwisse and later national team coach Yury Kashirin, Chrissy credits much of her success to her mentors, often stewing over their comments and using them to fuel her performances, most notably her World Cup win at Monte Sainte Anne in 2001.
Chrissy raced professionally and for Canada for 10 years, representing Canada at 10 consecutive World Championships, 1 Olympic Games, 1 Commonwealth Games and countless National and World Cups. She left professional sport with 2 World Championship medals, 1 Commonwealth medal, 1 National Championship in Cross Country, 4 National Championships in Cyclocross and dozens of medals from the US National Series.
Since retiring, Chrissy’s competitive nature has remained as feisty as ever, and for fun she has completed 1 BC Bike Race (7 day XC event), 2 Trans BC Enduro races (6 day Enduro event) and has won the masters category at 2 Whistler EWS and 1 Finale Ligure EWS races. She is also mother to two boys who share her love of two wheeled sports.
Chrissy met Lesley and Gina on the trails. Her bonding moments with Lesley were in 1996 during the Olympic Team prep at the Women's Giro Road Race and during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, sparking a friendship that has lasted 25 years. She joined Lesley and Gina with TaG, opening up the Whistler studio to bring structured training to cyclists in the Sea to Sky corridor. Her calm and supportive nature coupled with her never-give-up attitude has encouraged both high level athletes and recreational sportsmen to reach higher and achieve their goals.