Nino Schurter

In his first junior international competition on 31 July in Walbrzych, Poland, Nino Schurter finished first at the European Championships.[15]

2012 was one of Schurter's most successful season when he won 11 out of 15 races.[16] He won his first World Cup of the season on 18 March in Pietermaritzburg[17] on a bike with 650B or 27.5 inch wheels.[18] On 13 May, he won his second World Cup on his 26th birthday in Nove Mesto na Morave.[19] On 28 July, after his fourth individual win, Schurter won the overall World Cup series title in Val d'Isère.[6]

On 15 September 2011, Schurter qualified for the 2012 Olympics where he won the silver medal after being beaten in a final sprint on the line by Jaroslav Kulhavy.[20][21][22][23] On 8 September 2012, he won his second World Championships title in Saalbach, Austria, where he shared the podium with two of his countrymen Lukas and Matthias Fluckiger.[24]

On 2 September 2013, Schurter won his third World Championship title in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on one of his favourite cross-country courses.[16]

Schurter joined the Australian road race cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE during the 2014 season.[25] He took part in the Tour de Romandie[26] and the Tour de Suisse.[27]

In the 2014 mountain bike season, he lost his World Cup and World Championships titles. He finished in second place in Hafjell, Norway[28] and ended up his season behind Julien Absalon at the World Cup in Méribel.

In 2015, Schurter fully committed to his mountain bike career as he had the 2016 Olympics in Rio on his agenda for the next two years.[29] He competed in the 2015 European Games for Switzerland, in mountain biking. He won the gold medal in the event.[30]

Schurter won his fifth world championship in men's cross-country at the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships at Nové Město, Czech Republic. This equaled the record of Julien Absalon, who has also won five titles in the event.[31] At the 2016 Summer Olympic he won the gold medal, finishing before Jaroslav Kulhavý and Carlos Coloma Nicolás.

In March 2017, Schurter won the Absa Cape Epic – the eight-day South African stage race – for the first time. Riding with Scott-Sram teammate Matthias Stirnemann in the two-man team format they won by eight minutes from pre-race favorites Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy (Investec Songo Specialized). Schurter had completed the Cape Epic three times previously. This was his first win. He went on to win all six rounds of the World Cup and accomplished as first person a Perfect season, as well as his sixth world championship.