Cuban track and road cyclist. She has been part of the American UCI Women's Team category, the highest women's road cycling category worldwide, Sho-Air Twenty20. She has been a Pan American medalist and Central American Champion in the XXII Games held in Veracruz in 2014.
Marlies was born in Güira de Melena, province of Artemisa. From a young age she was interested in sports, beginning her training as a cyclist.
Sports Career.
2009 - 2012
In 2009 she was selected as the most outstanding junior athlete. On August 11, 2010 she finished in sixth place in the 500-meter time trial at the Junior World Championship and on August 12 she won the bronze medal in the same event.
On March 5, 2012 she won the silver medal in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit at the Pan American Track and Road Cycling Championship held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. She qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games where she finished eighth in the speed event.
2013 - 2016
In February 2013 she competed in the Pan American Cycling Tournament held in Mexico, where she won 3 gold medals, winning the individual and team pursuit events, as well as the Omnium.
On May 6 she won the silver medal at the Pan American Road Cycling Championship, held in the Mexican city of Zacatecas, with a time of 2 hours, 35 minutes and 14 seconds.
At the Cuba Cup of track cycling held at the Reinaldo Paseiro Velodrome at the Pan American Village in Havana in October, she won the gold medal along with Arlenis Sierra, Yumaris González and Yudelmis Domínguez in the four-thousand-meter pursuit with a time of 5.02.362 minutes. She also won the women's omnium gold by defeating Venezuelan Jennifer César. Both compiled 14 points, so they had to resort to the times achieved in that final race to determine the winner, and there Marlies prevailed by a head (with 36.404 seconds against her rival's 37.489).
On December 6 at the Track Cycling World Cup held at the velodrome in Aguascalientes, Mexico, she successfully completed the first part of the grueling omnium event by finishing fifth in the flying lap (250 m), ninth in the points race and sixth in the Elimination to remain among the top six. On December 7 she achieved Cuba's and Latin America's most outstanding performance by finishing fourth in the omnium multiple event. She had her best performances of the six competing events in the second round by winning in the 500 time trial, finishing fourth in the three-thousand-meter individual pursuit and placing eighth in the Scratch group race to accumulate 33 points.
She was selected to compete in the Cycling Tour of San Luis, Argentina, which took place from January 14-18 where she finished fifth in the general classification, third in combined general, fourth in points with (5) and won the SUB 23 general category. The Cuban team achieved third place in the Tour.
At the XXII World Track Cycling Championship in Cali, Colombia she finished tenth in the omnium, achieving the best placement by Latin America in the grueling event with 61 points.
At the Cuba Cup of Track Cycling that concluded in May at the Reinaldo Paseiro Velodrome she won gold as part of Cuba's main quartet along with teammates Yumari and Yoanka González and Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla, with a time of 4:54.511 minutes. She also stood out in the omnium, and after completing three events she led competitors from four countries with 7 points, winning the flying lap and the elimination group competition, finishing fifth in the points race.
She won the silver medal in the omnium at the conclusion of the opening round of the Track Cycling World Cup at the Guadalajara Velodrome in Mexico and won the bronze medal in individual speed. In the first events she had finished (third in pursuit, sixth in Elimination and seventh in Scratch). She sealed her performance by dominating the 500-meter time trial and flying lap, and finishing fifth in the points race, with 183 total points, thus ensuring the second medal for Cuba's limited representation at this event.
At the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games Veracruz 2014 she set a record in the pursuit (teaming with Arlenis Sierra, Yudelmis Domínguez, Yumari González) with a time of 04:31.235 and won the team speed event in a pair with Lisandra Guerra. On November 19 she again set a record in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit in the event qualifier, where she finally won her third gold medal, surpassing fellow Cuban Yudelmis Domínguez with a better time of (3:34.264 minutes)[16]. On November 21 she crowned her track performance by winning her fourth gold medal, this one in the omnium by defeating Colombian Jannie Milena Salcedo (silver) and Venezuelan Angie González (bronze). Two days later she won the road race ahead of three other Cubans (Yumari González, Yudelmis Domínguez and Arlenis Sierra), who recorded the same time as Marlies (02:11:11)[19]. With this result she totaled five gold medals, which made her the undisputed queen of the Games, ahead of her teammate Lisandra Guerra, who finished with four.
With only days to recover from the exhausting Central American Games in Veracruz, she competed in early December at the second round of the Cycling World Cup held in London, Great Britain. In that competition she accumulated 140 points across the six omnium events to finish in fifth place. In team speed she paired with teammate Lisandra Guerra, finishing eleventh with a time of 19.837 seconds.
On May 9, 2015 she won the gold medal at the Pan American Road Cycling Championship held in the Mexican city of León in Guanajuato[21], with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 37 seconds, followed by American Coryn Rivera and González, who achieved similar times over the 90 kilometers covered in a nine-kilometer circuit.
On May 29 at the Cuba Cycling Cup held at the Reinaldo Paseiro Velodrome, she won the gold medal in omnium by winning 5 of the six events comprising this event, proving to be the most complete racer of the tournament with an accumulated 231 points.
On July 16 at the XVII Pan American Games in Toronto 2015, held this year in Canada, she won the silver medal in team speed, alongside teammate Lisandra Guerra, with a time of 34.813. On July 19 she won the bronze medal in the omnium with 194 accumulated points, this time facing Olympic and world medalists.
She participated in the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, where on August 16 she surpassed her performance in London by finishing seventh in the omnium event.
At the Pan American Track Cycling Championship that concluded on October 9 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, she won the gold medal in the omnium event, silver in individual pursuit achieving her personal best mark of 3 minutes 28 seconds and 969 thousandths, and bronze alongside Iraida García in Madison.
She won the flying goals and points race at the I Women's Cycling Tour of Colombia, which concluded on November 13 after 80.3 kilometers between the towns of Supia-Felisa-Irra-La Manuela-Manizales Plaza de Toros. Among more than a hundred athletes, Marlies reached 47 points in flying goals after winning those at Indial and La Manuela.
She won the II Titan Tropic Mountain that ended on December 8, 2016 on the sands of Cayo Jutías, north of the province of Pinar del Río.
2017
On January 29 she became absolute champion of Uruguay's first international women's cycling tour by winning the final 90-kilometer stage and taking the lead in the general classification. Member of the Weber Shimano Ladies Power club and the only Latin American team with a license from the International Cycling Union (UCI), she dominated three of the four stages (she finished second in the third), in addition to winning the special mountain and sprint prizes.
She led the main peloton of 26 riders who crossed the finish line after two hours, eight minutes and 51 seconds of pedaling over 90 kilometers. Almost a minute later the rest of the competitors began crossing the finish line until completing the 81 who finished the tour out of 84 who started at the opening. The island cyclist, who wore the leader's jersey from the initial stage, won on the second day, finished second in the two parts of the third day which included an individual time trial, and finished strongly ahead on Sunday, the final day of the competition to close nearly 272 kilometers in 7:45.07 hours.
On February 19 of this year she won undefeated the Cycling Tour of San Juan with victories in all four stages scheduled on roads and circuits in that province in Argentina. For the second consecutive month the cyclist became queen of the Weber Shimano Ladies Power club. Marlies started the Tour successfully on a circuit where the peloton covered 68 kilometers in four laps, the next day she was the one who set the best time in the individual time trial of only six kilometers, stopping the clock at 7 minutes and 45 seconds, on Saturday February 18 she proved that she is not only fast on flat terrain, she also won the longest day, not only 76 kilometers, but difficult due to a mountainous route to secure victory the next day.
On May 5 she won the bronze medal in the individual time trial at the Pan American Road Championship held in Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital.
As a member of the Weber Shimano Ladies Power Team, she made her debut with victory in her first appearance at the Wilmington Grand Prix in Delaware, United States.
2018
She finished third at the Pan American Road Championship that took place in San Juan, Argentina, in May 2018, where Cuba had a perfect performance on the final day, occupying the top five positions.
She was part of the Cuban delegation that represented us at the XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games held in Barranquilla, Colombia, from July 19 to August 3, 2018, where on July 22 she gave cycling its second gold medal by winning the group race called Scratch at the start of the track at the Alcides Nieto Patiño velodrome. She also won gold medals in Team Pursuit and Individual Pursuit.
She was Cuba's best performer at the Pan American Track Cycling Championship in Aguascalientes, held in Mexico, in September of this year, qualifying for the continental Lima 2019 games with the presence of 20 countries, by winning silver medals in the 3 km individual pursuit and in Scratch and bronze in the Points event.
Below is her palmares in elite category track cycling:
2011
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Bronze in Individual Pursuit
Gold in Team Pursuit (with Yoanka González, Yudelmis Domínguez)
Gold in Omnium
Pan American Games in Guadalajara
Bronze in Omnium
2012
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Silver in Individual Pursuit
Gold in Omnium
2013
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Gold in Individual Pursuit
Gold in Team Pursuit (with Arlenis Sierra, Yudelmis Domínguez)
Gold in Omnium
2014
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Bronze in Team Speed (with Lisandra Guerra)
Silver in Individual Pursuit
Silver in Team Pursuit (with Yumari González, Yoanka González)
Silver in Omnium
Central American and Caribbean Games of Veracruz
Gold in Individual Pursuit
Gold in Team Pursuit (with Arlenis Sierra, Yudelmis Domínguez and Yumari González)
Gold in Team Speed (with Lisandra Guerra)
Gold in Omnium
2014-2015 Track Cycling World Cup in Guadalajara
Silver in Omnium
2015
Pan American Games in Toronto
Silver in Team Speed (with Lisandra Guerra)
Bronze in Omnium
2016
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Silver in Individual Pursuit
Third in exhibition race (non-scoring) in Madison or Americana
Gold in Omnium
2017
Pan American Track Cycling Championship
Bronze in Team Pursuit (with Arlenis Sierra, Mailín Sánchez, Yeima Torres)
Silver in Scratch
2018
Central American and Caribbean Games on Track
Gold in Individual Pursuit
Gold in Scratch
Gold in Team Pursuit (with Arlenis Sierra, Yudelmis Domínguez and Maylin Sánchez)
The following is her palmares achieved in road racing in elite category:
2010
2nd at the Cuba Road Championship Silver
2012
3rd at the Cuba Road Championship Bronze
2013
2nd at the Pan American Road Championship Silver
2014
2nd at the Cuba Road Championship Silver
3rd at the Cuba Time Trial Championship Bronze
Central American and Caribbean Games Gold
2015
2nd at the Cuba Road Championship Silver
Cuba Time Trial Championship Gold
Pan American Road Championship Gold
2nd at the Pan American Games Road Race Silver
2016
3rd at the Cuba Time Trial Championship Silver
3rd at the Cuba Road Championship Silver
2017
3rd at the Pan American Time Trial Championship Bronze
International Women's Tour in Uruguay, plus 3 stages2
Cycling Tour of San Juan, plus 4 stages3
2018
3rd at the Pan American Time Trial Championship Bronze
Cuba Time Trial Championship Gold
2021
Pan American Time Trial Championship Gold
In 2021, after nearly three years away from high-level cycling competition, Marlies Mejías reappeared triumphantly at the Pan American Road Championship, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, by winning the women's individual time trial.
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