Vermilion’s Alison “Action” Jackson set to compete at Paris Olympics

Alison Jackson will represent her country for the second time at the Paris Olympics, set to begin later this week. 

The professional cyclist hails from Vermilion and hopes to branch off the success she had at the 2023 Paris-Roubaix, one of the oldest and most prestigious road races in the world, where she won it all.  

The 145km course, titled the “Hell of the North”, is riddled with cobblestone sections and she became the first North American ever (woman or man) to win this event, and the first Canadian to win one of road cycling’s five Monuments. The Monuments are deemed the oldest, hardest, and most prestigious cycling events in the world. 

“The wide array of sports I did while growing up in Vermilion, along with all the outdoor activity time I had on the farm provided a really good fitness base for me to build on when I decided to specialize in cycling in university,” Jackson told Lakeland Connect in 2020, when she returned home to train during a COVID stoppage in UCI Women’s World Tour. 

In the Tokyo Olympics, Jackson finished a modest 32nd place in the road race, but her profile has continued to increase steadily heading into this summer’s games. 

In 2023, Jackson was a double medallist at the Pan American Championships, taking silver in the road race and bronze in the individual time trial. 

“Action” Jackson has earned a steady social media following. She has over 100,000 followers on Instagram and many thousands on TikTok before she had to start a new account.

She regularly posts reels and updates on her cycling successes.

Jackson will run her individual time trail on Saturday, July 27 at 6:30AM MST.

Jackson is just one of 34 Albertans competing in this Olympic games.