Audrey McElmury

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Audrey McElmury , b. Audrey Phleger (born January 24, 1943 in La Jolla , California , † March 23, 2013 in West Yellowstone , Montana ) was an American cyclist who became the first American to win the road world championship.

Cycling career

Audrey McElmury initially practiced the sport of surfing. After breaking a leg doing it in 1960, she turned to cycling. Since there were hardly any street races for women at the time, she trained on the velodrome and won the California track championship in 1964.

McElmury drove her first world championship in Rome in 1968; she finished fifth. The following year the UCI Road World Championships for amateurs took place in Brno ( Czechoslovakia ). Since the American Cycling Federation could not cover the travel expenses for three starters, McElmury paid them himself.

The date of the world championships coincided with the first anniversary of the invasion of the Eastern Bloc countries into Czechoslovakia: Russian tanks stood in the streets, armed soldiers patrolled, and the spectators on the roadside cheered the American athletes euphorically.

Surprisingly, Audrey Elmury became world champion, making it the first American world champion, whether man or woman, in road cycling, and the first cycling world champion in the USA since 1912, when Frank Kramer became the sprint world champion on the track . For the officials in Brno the surprise was so great that it took half an hour to get hold of a tape with the American national anthem. In her home country, McElmury's success met with little response.

Professional

Audrey McElmury studied zoology at the University of California, San Diego , but worked as a trainer in Boulder after the end of her active career (1970) . She gave up this activity after a fall. She was married to cyclist Michael Lovans for the second time; together they wrote the book Bicycle Training for Triathletes .

Honors

Audrey McElmury was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1989 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Nye: Hearts of Lions. The History of American Bicycle Racing. Norton, New York NY et al. 1988, ISBN 0-393-02543-8 , pp. 228-230.
  2. ↑ Hickoksports.com ( Memento from December 16, 2011 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)

Web links
personal data
SURNAME McElmury, Audrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH La Jolla
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 2013
Place of death West Yellowstone , Montana