Mel Pemble
Canadian para competitor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Melissa Pemble (born April 22, 2000) is a Canadian para alpine skier and para cyclist. She won back-to-back gold medals in omnium C3 at the 2022 and 2023 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. She won two medals in para-cycling at the 2023 Parapan American Games.
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| Full name | Melissa Pemble | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | April 22, 2000 Lancashire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | melpemble | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport |
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| C3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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World finals |
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Medal record
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Early life and education
Pemble was born in Lancashire, England with cerebral palsy affecting her right side.[1] Her parents thought it would be good for her to take up a sport to help with her balance and coordination.[2] She moved to Victoria, British Columbia at age 9 with her parents.[3] She twisted her knee after an early skiing lesson in France, but took up para-skiing again after moving to Canada.[1]
Pemble graduated from the Canadian Sports School-Victoria.[4]
Career
Para-skiing
At the 2015 Canada Winter Games, Pemble won the women’s Giant Slalom Para female race.[5] She also won a silver medal in slalom para alpine skiing at the Games.[6]
Pemble competed at the 2018 Winter Paralympics as the youngest Canadian skier at the games.[7] She finished eleventh in women's giant slalom,[8] and women's super-G,[9] and ninth in women's downhill[10] and women's super combined.[11] She did not finish in women's slalom.[12]
She competed at the 2019 World Para Alpine Skiing Championships. Pemble made the decision to end her para-skiing career in 2020.[1]
Para-cycling
When she was 14, the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific's Podium Search program identified Pemble for para-cycling. She competed at the provincial level and used the sport as cross-training for skiing. She was coached by Kurt Innes, who later coached her upon her return to the sport in 2020 after a five-year break from the sport.[1]
She made her world debut in para-cycling competing at the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, at which she won a gold medal in omnium[13] and scratch race.[14][15] She set a para-cycling world record in the non-medaled 200-metre sprint in 2022.[16][17] She also placed third in the 500m time trial and fourth in the four-kilometre individual pursuit.[1]
At the 2023 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, Pemble won gold in omnium, a bronze medal in the time trial event, and a silver in the women’s C3 scratch race.[18]
Pemble competed at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile. She won the gold medal in the women's 3,000-metre C1-3 individual pursuit.[19] She finished fourth in the women's individual road race C1–3[20] and seventh in the women's individual road time trial C1–5.[21]
She won a silver medal in the women’s C3 500m time trial and a bronze medal in the women's C3 omnium at the 2024 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships.[22] Also at the 2024 UCI Para Cycling Championships, Pemble placed 5th in the Individual Pursuit and 6th in the Scratch Race.[23]
Pemble competed in para-cycling at the 2024 Summer Paralympics where she set the world record for the 500m time trial in the C3 category.[24] At the 2025 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, she won a gold medal in the women’s C3 sprint, silver in the kilo and in the elimination race, and a bronze in the scratch race.[25]