Connie Carpenter-Phinney

Connie Carpenter Phinney

Personal information
Full name	Connie Carpenter Phinney
Born	February 26, 1957 (1957-02-26) (age 54) Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Team information
Discipline	Road, Track & Speedskating
Role	Rider
Medal record Women's road bicycle racing Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold Los Angeles 1984 Individual road race UCI Road World Championships Silver 1977 Road race Bronze 1981 Road race
Infobox last updated on September 7, 2008

Connie Carpenter Phinney (born February 26, 1957 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American former 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 around rowing. She was a member of Cal's varsity for two seasons. In 1979, her varsity 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 cycling medalist Davis Phinney, with whom she has two children, Taylor and Kelsey. Taylor competed at the 2008 Olympics, the eighteen year old coming seventh in the individual pursuit.

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

• BA Physical Education, University of California, Berkeley, 1981
• MS Kinesiology (University of Colorado) 1990

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 0-76071-7079. 
3. ^ Cal Athletics website

External links

• Connie Carpenter-Phinney profile at Cycling Archives
• Sports-Reference Profile

Persondata
Name	Carpenter-Phinney, Connie
Alternative names
Short description	American racing cyclist and speed skater
Date of birth	February 26, 1957
Place of birth	Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Date of death
Place of death