Connie Carpenter-Phinney (born February 26, 1957) is an American retired

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling spo ...

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 was a three-time overall winner of the Coors International Bicycle Classic. She also won the gold medal in the cycling road race at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, as well as twelve U.S. national championships. She remains the youngest American woman to compete at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

Early career

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 The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

, where she finished 7th in the 1500m. She was fourteen years old at the time, making her the youngest American female Winter Olympian. Carpenter-Phinney trained with Norwegian coach Finn Halvorsen as part of the US National speed skating team that competed in the 1972 Olympics. Other members of the team included Anne Henning and Sheila Young (Ochowicz). In 1976, she won the U.S. national overall outdoor title, but an injury prevented her from competing in the Olympics that year. After failing to make the Olympic team in 1976, Carpenter-Phinney began to focus on bicycle racing. Outside of skating, while a student at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, 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 American collegiate rowing world with a national championship in the varsity four.

Cycling career

Carpenter had trained on a bicycle during the skating off-season, and after the ankle injury in 1976, she began racing on the bike. 1976 was her first season of bicycle racing, and she won the US National Championship by beating former champion Mary Jane "Miji" Reoch. In 1977 and 1979, she also won the U.S. national road and track pursuit championships. She added a pair of national criterium championships to her resume before winning the Olympic gold medal in 1984. 1984 was the first year women's cycling was part of the Olympics; previously it had only been a men's sport. The 79 km race took place on July 29, 1984. She won the race in a sprint over fellow American Rebecca Twigg and European competitors Jeannie Longo and Maria Canins. She was a three-time overall winner of what was at that time America's premier stage race, the Coors International Bicycle Classic, winning her last overall victory there in 1982. Carpenter-Phinney was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001 and is a member of both the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Boulder (Colorado) Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Personal life

Carpenter-Phinney is married to fellow Olympic medalist and retired professional cyclist Davis Phinney, with whom she has two children,

Taylor Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) ...

and Kelsey. As of 2015 she lived in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

where she was an entrepreneur and also on the board of the Davis Phinney Foundation. Taylor competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. In the 2008 Games, the eighteen-year-old Phinney placed seventh in the

individual pursuit The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track. It is held at over for men and women. The riders start at the same time and set off to complete the rac ...

. In the 2012 London Games, Taylor earned fourth-place finishes in both the road race and individual time trial. He was a professional cyclist and competed in world-class races such as Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, and the Tour of California prior to his retirement in 2019.

Education

* BA Physical Education,

, 1981 * MS Kinesiology (University of Colorado) 1990

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter-Phinney, Connie 1957 births Living people American female cyclists American female speed skaters American cycling road race champions Cyclists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in cycling Olympic speed skaters for the United States Speed skaters from Madison, Wisconsin Speed skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics University of California, Berkeley alumni UCI Track Cycling World Champions (women) Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics American track cyclists 20th-century American sportswomen Cyclists from Wisconsin Madison East High School alumni