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Marie-Claude Molnar, cyclist (born 2 October 1983 in Greenfield Park, QC). One of Canada’s top female para cyclists of all time, Molnar won the bronze medal in the women’s road cycling time trial at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. She won 19 medals at the World Championship level for para cycling from 2009 to 2021.
Family and Early Life
Marie-Claude Molnar is an only child of Lise Demers and Réal Molnar. Lise worked in a pharmacy and Réal was a truck driver and volunteer firefighter. While growing up in Quebec, Marie-Claude was active in many sports, including baseball, tennis, soccer, volleyball, badminton, swimming, ballet, tap dancing, breakdancing and cross-country skiing. But her favourite sports were cycling and ice hockey.
Molnar started cycling at the age of three and participated in her first race at age eight. As a child, she rode 40 kilometres at a time with her parents on a five-speed bike. She also played hockey and idolized Manon Rheaume, the Canadian goaltender who won gold medals at the 1992 and 1994 World Women’s Hockey Championship and a silver medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano. However, Molnar decided to focus on cycling as a teenager when she realized her hockey dreams were not meant to be.
Accident
On 12 July 2005, 21-year-old Marie-Claude Molnar was hit by a car while cycling near Parc Safari in Saint-Bernard-De-Lacolle, Quebec.
The car was travelling at 110 km per hour when it hit Molnar, who ended up on the car’s windshield. The driver was arrested and later sentenced to prison. Molnar suffered catastrophic injuries: her skull was broken and she suffered 20 fractures to her leg and serious injuries to her arms. Fortunately, a nearby motorist was a paramedic and came to her rescue. The paramedic was able to stop the bleeding, but she still lost an extreme amount of blood.
Molnar lost consciousness on impact with the car and has no memory of the actual accident. Because her head hit the ground, she suffered a severe brain injury. Years later, she still experiences “mental energy drains,” a difficulty finding the right words when speaking, “cloudy thinking” and a loss of patience.
Molnar spent three weeks in hospital to rehabilitate. She was determined to return to cycling and adopted a positive mindset, making friends with fellow patients in the hospital. On 1 September 2005, just over six weeks after the accident, Molnar returned to cycling with her father.
Education
From 2006 to 2009, Marie-Claude Molnar was a history student at Concordia University, where she was a member of the Loyola International College (now the Loyola College of Diversity and Sustainability). She was also the first president of the college’s student association.
Joining Team Canada
In the fall of 2008, Marie-Claude Molnar learned about para-cycling and competed in her first race in Montreal on 1 May 2009. She raced in the C4 category, which includes athletes with limb impairments and moderate neurological dysfunction. She posted impressive times in the time trial and was chosen to represent Canada at the 2009 Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Bognono, Italy, and the 2009 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Manchester, United Kingdom. Molnar won two medals at each championship, proving to the cycling world that she could compete at a high level on the track and on the road.
World Record and Paralympic Bronze Medal
Leading up to the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Marie-Claude Molnar won seven more medals at the World Championship level, including two medals in Canada, where she won silver in the road race and bronze in the time trial at the 2010 Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Baie-Comeau, Quebec.
In 2011, Molnar set the world record in the women’s track cycling 3000 m individual pursuit at the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, posting a time of 4:05.403.
Molnar’s Paralympic medal came at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. She posted a time of 26 minutes, 48.52 seconds in the women’s time trial with a C4 Classification. Megan Fisher (USA) won the gold medal with a time of 26 minutes, 4.39 seconds and Susan Powell (Australia) took silver with a time of 26 minutes, 31.3 seconds. Alexandra Green (Australia) came fourth, nearly a minute behind Molnar.
World Championship and World Cup Success
Marie-Claude Molnar went on to win a total of 19 medals at the World Para-Cycling Championships (10 on the road and nine on the track). Three of the 19 medals were gold. Molnar won gold in the scratch at the 2017 Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Los Angeles and in the time trial and road race at the 2021 Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Cascais, Portugal. She also won 10 gold medals at the World Cup level and 30 medals at the National Championship level.
Molnar retired from competitive cycling in 2022. Since January 2024, she has been Communications Manager at the Maison Saint-Gabriel History Museum in Montreal.
Charitable Endeavours
Marie-Claude Molnar was a board member with Les Cyclopétards, a women’s cycling club in Quebec. Since 2014, she has also been involved with Jouez Gagnant, an organization that promotes the benefits of sports and physical activity to young people. Molnar has also been involved with environmental initiatives, including EcoAthletes and Canada Green Sport Day.
