Oceana Zarco (12 April 191111 January 2008) was the first professional female cyclist in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. Oceana Rosa de Sousa Zarco was born on 12 April 1911 in the parish of Santa Maria da Graça in

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, Portugal. Her stepfather, João Duarte, owned a bicycle shop in Setúbal and encouraged her to ride, despite the fact that this was a very unusual activity for girls and women in Portugal at that time, as were most sports. By the age of 7 she was already cycling to school. At the age of 10 she joined the cycling team at the sports club of Vitória de Setúbal and, using a boy's bicycle, began to train and compete with boys. Zarco became a professional in 1925 at the age of 14, registering with the ''Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo'' as Number 227. She continued to use a men's bicycle, wore shorts together with a shirt in the distinctive green and white stripes of her club, and cut her hair short. In 1924 the first women's "Tour of Lisbon" cycling race was held, with just three competitors. It was won by Cesina Bermudes, who went on to become a well-known

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

, with the other two competitors being her sister Clara and Estela de Oliveira. Bermudes managed to retain her title in the following year, but faced strong opposition from Zarco, who went on to win in the following three years. In 1926 she also won the "Tour of

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

", on a course she did not know in a city she had not been to. She also won the “Tour of Setúbal”. At the age of 18, in 1929, Zarco was forced to abandon cycling. It seems likely that this was for financial reasons, although one source suggests that she had to have surgery. She then studied nursing and was a nurse for 30 years. She married late in life because the right-wing Estado Novo regime did not permit nurses to marry until 1963. Zarco died on 11 January 2008. A street has been named after her in Setúbal.

References

{{stack, {{Portal, Portugal Portuguese female cyclists 1911 births Sportspeople from Setúbal 2008 deaths