Twigg, Rebecca (1963—)

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Twigg, Rebecca (1963—)

American cyclist. Born on March 26, 1963, in Honolulu, Hawaii; University of Washington, B.S. in biology, 1985; Colman College, San Diego, A.A. in computer science, 1989; attended graduate school at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 2000.

Four-time junior national champion; won national championship in individual pursuit (1981–82, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995); won world championship in individual pursuit (1982, 1984–85, 1987, 1992, 1995); won national championship in individual time trial (1982, 1993–94); won national championship in kilometer time trial (1984, 1986, 1995); won silver medal, road race, Los Angeles Olympics (1984); named USCF Senior Female Athlete of the Year (1985, 1987, 1993, 1995); nominated for James E. Sullivan Award (1987, 1992, 1995); won bronze medal, individual pursuit, Barcelona Olympics (1992); sixteentime Senior National champion.

Rebecca Twigg, a six-time world champion in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit bike race, began racing—and winning—while still in her teens, earning her first national championship at 18 and her first world title a year later. In heavy competition during the 1980s, Twigg earned national and world titles in events from road races to pursuit races to time trials. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she won a silver medal in the only women's cycling event—the road race. Although Twigg had planned to compete in the 1988 Summer Games, illness, crashes, and fatigue kept her from qualifying for the U.S. team that year.

With a bachelor's degree in biology granted in 1985 from the University of Washington, where she had taken classes since the age of 14, she went on to study computer science at Colman College. Working full-time as a computer programmer in San Diego, she trimmed her exercise routine to aerobics and weekend bike rides. When she heard that her best event—the women's 3,000-meter individual pursuit race—was being added to the program at the 1992 Olympics, Twigg called her old coach, Eddie Borysewicz, who believed in her chances. She returned to intensive training and found that her three years away had taken a toll. Wrote Anne Janette Johnson: "Her spin was gone, her muscles were leaden. But mind, dedication, and health she had, and after a month and a half of serious training, she began to recover her racing form." Her first year back, she again captured the U.S. pursuit title.

At the 1992 Barcelona Games, in the first Olympic women's pursuit race ever held, Twigg won the bronze medal. Soon after that, at the world championships in Hamar, Norway, she won the gold medal with a record time of 3:37.347, almost eight-tenths of a second faster than the previous world record. She won a dozen other victories in the same year, and was nominated for the James E. Sullivan Award as America's best athlete.

In 1993 and 1994, she earned two more national titles, but it was the following year that was particularly memorable. In 1995, she broke her collarbone two weeks before the World championships in Bogotá, Colombia, and chose to have a metal plate surgically implanted in her shoulder so that she would not miss the race. Immediately after this, she caught a cold, but decided to go to the competition and do her best anyway. She shattered her previous world record by almost a second, and won her sixth World championship. She was thrilled that the injury and cold had not slowed her time.

Prospects looked good for Twigg in 1996, as she prepared for the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Unfortunately, a conflict with the cycling team's coach, who criticized her after she performed poorly in the pursuit quarterfinals, caused her to leave the team before the end of the Games. She came under fire from teammates because she did not compete in the time trial event. Returning to Colorado Springs, Twigg camped and hiked in the Rockies while the controversy subsided. She has since returned to study multimedia computing and its applications at the graduate school at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.