Connie Carpenter-Phinney

Connie Carpenter-Phinney
Personal information
Full name Connie Carpenter-Phinney
Nickname -
Born February 26, 1957
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Team information
Discipline Road, Track & Speedskating
Role Rider
Infobox last updated on
September 7, 2008

Connie Carpenter-Phinney (born February 26, 1957 in Madison, Wisconsin, is an American retired racing cyclist and speed skater who won four medals in World Cycling Championship competitions (both road and track cycling) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She also won the gold medal in the cycling road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as twelve U.S. national championships. She remains the youngest American woman to compete at the Winter Olympics.[1]

Before turning to cycling, Carpenter was a speed skater, one of many athletes who excelled in both sports. As a speed skater, she competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics where she finished 7th in the 1500m---she was fourteen years old at the time, making her the youngest American female Winter Olympian. In 1976, she won the U.S. national overall outdoor title, but an injury prevented her competing in the Olympics that year.

Carpenter had trained on a bicycle during the off-season, and after the ankle injury in 1976, she began racing on the bike. In 1976, 1977, and 1979, she won the U.S. national road and track pursuit championships. Later, she added a pair of national criterium championships to her resume before winning the Olympic gold medal in 1984. She won the race in a sprint over fellow American Rebecca Twigg.[2]

While a student at the University of California, Berkeley her athletic career centered on rowing. She was a member of Cal's varsity for two seasons. In 1979, her varsity team finished second nationally, and in 1980 she reached the top of the collegiate rowing world with a national championship in the varsity four.[3]

Carpenter-Phinney is married to fellow Olympic medalist and retired professional cyclist Davis Phinney, with whom she has two children, Taylor and Kelsey. Taylor competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, the eighteen-year-old coming seventh in the individual pursuit. In London, Taylor earned fourth place finishes in both the road race and individual time trial. As of 2012, he is a professional cyclist with the BMC Racing team.

She was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

She is a member of both the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in addition to others.

Education

References

  1. ↑ http://pressbox.teamusa.org/Publications/Olympic%20Records.pdf
  2. ↑ Peretz, Howard G. (1999). It Ain't Over 'Till The Fat Lady Sings: The 100 Greatest Sports Finishes of All Time. New York: Barnes and Nobles Books. pp. 162–163. ISBN 0-7607-1707-9.
  3. ↑ Cal Athletics website

External links