Melanie Cline
American bicycle motocross rider
Melanie R. Cline (born June 29, 1975) is an American former amateur "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1982–2004 and 2009 to the present.
Born in Westland, Michigan, she was one of the first generation of female BMX racers to become well known after the 1980–1986 era dominated by Debbie Kalsow, Kathy Schachel, Gaby Bayhi and Cheri Elliott. Melanie Cline could more than hold her own against the boys, often racing in the "Open" class at nationals in which boys and girls raced in the same age bracket—9- and 10-year-olds and 11- and 12-year-olds for example—compete as opposed to the girls only division. She regularly made those Open mains and even won many of them. She won five such Opens at nationals in 1987 in the 11- and 12-year-old class. Her nicknames "Swell Mel" or just "Mel" are obvious plays on her first name Melanie. She was also known as "Speed Queen". Melanie went on to win 4 World Championships as well as 16 National Championships during her racing career, the most of any one person at that time. She stopped competing in 2003 after conceiving her first son shortly after the NBL Grand Nationals.
In late 2009, Melanie returned to racing with her five-year-old son joining her.
“Melanie Cline” enters the record as american bicycle motocross rider. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Melanie, Cline and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Melanie Cline” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Melanie, Cline and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6811265. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1982, 2004 and 2009.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Melanie Cline”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Melanie Cline primary sources, Melanie Cline archive and Melanie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Melanie Cline”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Melanie Cline” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.