Olympedia – Rebecca Twigg

Rebecca Twigg was probably the most well-known women rider produced by America during the cycling explosion of the 1980s. She was a tremendous rider, mainly as an individual pursuiter, winning the World Championship four times, in 1982, 1984-85, and 1987. She was forced to turn to the road when only that event was chosen for women’s cycling at the 1984 Olympics. She was also popular for her good looks and her brilliant mind – she skipped high school completely, matriculating at the University of Washington when only 14, and she worked for a time as a model. A winner of the 1983 Coors International Classic, she narrowly missed winning a gold medal in the 1984 Olympic road race when Connie Carpenter-Phinney outsprinted her.

Twigg retired in 1987 but returned in late 1991 and won a bronze medal in the individual pursuit at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and competed again in the pursuit at the Atlanta Olympics.

Her post-cycling life was not as kind to Twigg. She got some jobs in IT but had trouble adjusting to workplaces after so many years of training. She married, had a child, then divorced. By the late 2010s Twigg was living in shelters, sometimes on the streets, and was homeless in Seattle.