Rebecca Twigg

Rebecca Twigg

Twigg at the 1999 Women's Challenge
Personal information
Full name	Rebecca Twigg
Born	(1963-03-26) March 26, 1963 (age 58) Seattle, Washington, United States
Team information
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Medal record Representing the  United States Women's Track racing Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Road race 1992 Barcelona Individual pursuit World Championship 1982 Leicester Individual pursuit 1984 Barcelona Individual pursuit 1985 Bassano Individual pursuit 1987 Vienna Individual pursuit 1993 Hamar Individual pursuit 1995 Bogotá Individual pursuit 1986 Colorado Springs Individual pursuit Pan American Games 1987 Indianapolis Individual pursuit Women's road cycling Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Road race World Championships 1983 Altenrhein Road race Pan American Games 1987 Indianapolis Road race

Rebecca Twigg (born March 26, 1963) is an American former racing cyclist, who won six world track cycling championships in the individual pursuit. She also won 16 US championships (the first – the individual time trial – when she was 18) and two Olympic medals, the silver medal in the 1984 road race in Los Angeles, and a bronze medal in the pursuit in Barcelona in 1992.^[1]

Twigg won the first three editions of the Women's Challenge on the road. An academic prodigy, she enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle at the age of 14 and rode for the school's team. US national team coach Eddie Borysewicz saw her and invited her to join his team when she was 17.^[2] She earned degrees in biology and computer science from UW.

Twigg was a three-time Olympian (1984, 1992, and 1996). However, her final Olympic appearance, in Atlanta in 1996, ended in controversy when she quit the team in a disagreement with the coach Chris Carmichael and the U.S. Cycling Federation. The federation had invested in the development of the so-called SuperBike. Twigg, after using the bike earlier in the Games, refused to ride it, citing poor individual fit and claiming that pressure from the staff on her to use the SuperBike and their refusal to grant accreditation to her personal coach, Eddie Borysewicz, left her defocused.^[3]

Twigg married Mark Whitehead – a fellow member of the 1984 US Olympic cycling team – in 1985, but the marriage only lasted a couple of years.^[4]

Post-cycling life[]

After retiring from competitive cycling, Twigg earned an associate degree in computer science and worked at various jobs in the information technology industry.^[5] She remarried and had a daughter with her second husband. She later quit her jobs and became homeless while staying in Seattle, and as of 2019 has been homeless for the past five years. Her first personal encounter with homelessness occurred when she was 15 years old and was kicked out of her house by her mother.^[2]

Palmarès[]

References[]

External links[]

• "Free Wheeling: Rebecca Twigg Has Never Pedaled With The Pack, And She Doesn't Plan To Start Now," Sports Illustrated July 26, 1996