Novarra-Reber, Sue (1955—)

American cyclist. Name variations: Sue Novarra. Born Sue Novarra in Flint, Michigan, on November 22, 1955.

Was the youngest woman to win the world sprint championship (1975); won the title again (1980); won the U.S. sprint championships (1972, 1974, 1975).

Sprint cycling champion Sue Novarra-Reber was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1955. When she was 19, in 1975, she was the youngest woman to ever win the world sprint championship, a feat she repeated in 1980. But the 1984 women's Olympic cycling event to be held in Los Angeles would not include the sprint; it would be limited to road only. Although Novarra-Reber had been a seven-time national track champion, she switched to road racing so that she could compete in Los Angeles, a transition that was made over a period of years. In 1982, she became national champion in the road race. She won two road-race stages of the Coors International Classic and the Eastern Division of the Self magazine Cycling Circuit. In 1983, she was second to Sweden's Marianne Berglund in the Ruffles Tour of Texas. Novarra-Reber won two stages of the French Tour and took the Self Cycling Circuit (East) for the second time. She placed second in the criterium nationals. Because of her sprint experience, she had a strong finishing kick. Although the switch from sprint to road had seemed successful, Novarra-Reber did not make the 1983 world team, nor did she qualify for the Olympics. During her last year of racing, in 1984, she won the Central Park Grand Prix in New York.

sources:

Markel, Robert, Nancy Brooks, and Susan Markel. For the Record. Women in Sports. NY: World Almanac, 1985.

Karin Loewen Haag , Athens, Georgia