Sheila Young

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Sheila Young


fullname = Sheila Grace Young
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1950|14|10
country = USA
height =
weight =
currentteam =
discipline = Track Cycling & Speed Skating
role = Competitor
ridertype = Sprinter
amateuryears =
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updated = 24 August 2008

Sheila Grace Young-Ochowicz (born 14 October 1950 in Waco, Texas) is a former speed skater and track cyclist from the United States.

hort biography

Born in Birmingham, Michigan, Young and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan where she graduated from Denby High School in 1968. Young was a member of Wolverine Sports Club in the metropolitan Detroit area, which has produced three Olympic medalists since 1972. Their sports: cycling, long-track speed skating, and short-track speed skating. Both her parents had competed in cycling and speed skating and they encouraged Young and her three siblings to do the same. Young's brother Roger also gained fame as a cyclist, winning seven national championships, gold at the 1975 Pan American Games in the team pursuit, and competing at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics.

On the eve of the 1976 Winter Olympics, Young announced her engagement to Jim Ochowicz, a fellow cyclist. Ochowicz competed at the same two Summer Olympics (1972 and 1976) as Young's brother Roger, but in different cycling events – Ochowicz in the 4 km team pursuit, Roger Young in the sprint.

Young had her best year in 1976, when she won three Olympic speed skating medals (one of each colour), bronze at the world allround speed skating championships, became world sprint speed skating champion, skated three world records, became United States sprint track cycling champion, and became the world track cycling sprint champion.

Young retired from cycling and speed skating, and she and Jim worked for the Lake Placid Olympic Committee. They started a family and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1981, at age 31, she came out of retirement, won two more cycling championships, and then retired again in 1982.

Her three Olympic medals in 1976 made her the first United States athlete to win three medals at one Winter Olympics. Her world sprint speed skating championships in 1973 made her the first United States female athlete to accomplish that feat. Her world sprint speed skating championship of 1973 and her world sprint track cycling championship of that same year made her the first athlete to win World championships in two sports in the same year. The United States Olympic Committee named her "Sportswoman of the Year" in 1976 and 1981 for her accomplishments in both cycling and speed skating. She was inducted in the "International Women's Sports Hall of Fame" in 1981, the "United States Bicycling Hall of Fame" in 1988, and the "National Speedskating Hall of Fame" in 1991.

Jim and Sheila Ochowicz live in Menlo Park, California and have three children; Alex, Elli, and Kate. Their daughter Elli Ochowicz is also a speed skater. Elli competed at the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. Sheila is now a teacher in physical education

Medals

An overview of medals won by Young at important championships, listing the years in which she won each:

Track cycling

Young was United States sprint champion four times (1971, 1973, 1976, and 1981). At the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, she won bronze in 1972, silver in 1982, and she became World sprint champion three times – in 1973, 1976, and 1981. She had originally retired in 1976, but came out of retirement in 1981 to win one more United States sprint championship and beat her future sister-in-law, Connie Paraskevin to take the gold in the sprint at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 1981, [cite web| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E0DA153BF934A2575BC0A967948260| title=Ex-Skating Star Wins Cycling Title| publisher=New York Times| date=August 17, 1981] After winning silver at the 1982 world championship she retired again, preferring motherhood over prolonging her sports careers.

Women's cycling was not part of the summer Olympics of 1976. If it had been, Young may have won medals at both the summer Olympics and the winter Olympics in the same year, something that Christa Rothenburger (another world sprint champion in both speed skating and track cycling – although not, unlike Young, world champion in both sports in the same year) would achieve in 1988.

References

* [http://www.usolympicteam.com/26_13377.htm Sheila's U.S. Olympic Team bio]
* [http://www.skateresults.com/skater/show/1209 Sheila Young at SkateResults.com]
* [http://www.sskating.com/index.php?name=MUELLER-POULOS&fname=Leah&nat=USA&lm=l Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database]
* [http://www.isu.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,4844-181536-198754-94643-0-file,00.pdf Historical World Records] – "International Skating Union"
* [http://www.mckinley.rcsd.k12.ca.us/staff/sochowicz.htm Sheila Ochowicz] – "McKinley Institute of Technology"
* [http://www.usbhof.com/inductees/1988.cfm 1988 Inductees] – "U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame"
* [http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/about/awards/results.html?record=4 International Women's Sports Hall of Fame] – "Women's Sports Foundation"
* [http://www.nationalspeedskatingmuseum.org/hof-skaters.html Speedskating Hall of Fame – Speed Skaters] – "The National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame"