This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to calbearbackers@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.


Connie Carpenter-Phinney's Olympic story starts in 1972, but it isn't close to being finished.
 
When she competed in speed skating at the Sapporo Olympics, Carpenter became the youngest American woman ever to compete at the Winter Games. At only 14 years old, the Wisconsin native received her first introduction to the allure of an event that continues to captivate athletes across the world.
 
"We were on the northern-most island of Japan, Hokkaido, and it was beautiful there," Carpenter-Phinney said. "I was in an apartment with a couple of my teammates and we had real beds. My parents were staying in a real Japanese den that had tatami mats on the floor. It was a fabulous experience. I met some other athletes and I went to a lot of other events because I think my event was kind of early in the process. One of my roommates won a gold medal. It seemed easy."
 
Just a few years later, Carpenter landed in Berkeley to pursue her undergraduate education. Between those two stops, cycling had replaced speed skating as her passion. From 1976-79, she won multiple national championships on both the road and the track, establishing herself as one of the nation's top female cyclists while only a teenager.
 
At the same time, the prospect of returning to the Olympics on a bicycle remained unlikely since women's cycling didn't hold a spot in the lineup of sports contested at the Summer Games. Enter rowing. While she wasn't sold on giving up cycling, she found a home as a member of Cal's rowing team and it didn't take long for results to follow. In 1980, she captured a national championship in the varsity four. At the same time, she found a training partner and lifelong friend in fellow Olympian Patricia Spratlen Etem.
 
"She and I would either roller blade the hills of Berkeley or she would bike and I would roller blade," said Spratlen Etem, who like Carpenter is a member of the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame. "Occasionally, we would go so high that a couple times we got picked up by a friend or two. I remember that time because it was extra work and we both had a vision for something even beyond the Pac-10s. That type of relationship was great."
 
Carpenter knew that although she was 5-foot-10, she didn't have the power to make rowing her ticket back to the Olympics. Her love of bikes hadn't waned, and soon she had her ticket back to the highest level of competition when, in 1981, women's cycling was introduced as an Olympic sport.
 
In the meantime, Carpenter left Berkeley alongside another cyclist with Olympic aspirations. Davis Phinney had his own burgeoning career on the bike and together the two moved to Boulder, Colo., where they trained and prepared for careers yet to unfold.  They got married, and with her sights set on the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Carpenter turned her attention back to the road. She trained intently, entering men's criterium races to gain added competition and faring well.
 
"I remember very fondly cheering her on at some of those criterium races, especially doing well against male riders," Spratlen Etem said. "It was a groundbreaking time for women in sports and she was just unapologetic. She would do it as serious training but also as a hoot. She just said 'you go do what you need to do to be the best you can be and you don't have to apologize for anything.' That was just so refreshing and very different at the time. "
 
On the morning of July 29, 1984, Carpenter-Phinney lined up in Mission Viejo alongside 44 other hopefuls and a crowd that had camped out along the race route to see a day of Olympic cycling. The race unfolded as Carpenter-Phinney thought it might, with a small group breaking away midway through the race to contest the finish. A group of pre-race favorites that included Carpenter-Phinney remained in contention until a mechanical issue for France's Jeannie Longo shook up the order and left her competition wondering what happened. A late move around fellow American Rebecca Twigg made the difference and Carpenter-Phinney was an Olympic gold medalist.
 
"There's an element of pride that you can't describe but, when you're a favorite, the overwhelming sensation quite honestly is one of incredible relief that you actually did it on that day," Carpenter-Phinney said. "I only had one event. I always joke with the swimmers that I think it's very unfair they get about a dozen events. We had one. I didn't get a chance to have a bad race. I had one race, one shot at it. I think people could kind of relate to that."
 
Davis Phinney also brought a medal back to Boulder, winning bronze in the team time trial. One of the world's great sprinters, Phinney still stands as the winningest American cyclist in history and went on to win two stages at the Tour de France. He and his wife had two children, Taylor and Kelsey, and the memories of competitions past to share with them.
 
In 2000, Phinney was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease. Rather than give in, he started the Davis Phinney Foundation, designed to inspire and inform those dealing with Parkinson's. Connie joined the effort, and now spends a considerable amount of time helping the foundation in its quest to aid those affected by the disease.
 
Still, that didn't spell the end of the Olympic story for Carpenter-Phinney. In 2008, Taylor Phinney became the third member of the family to become an Olympian, placing seventh in track cycling's individual pursuit at the Beijing Games. In 2010, he switched to the road and found more success. He became the third American to wear the leader's jersey at the Giro d'Italia after winning the race's opening stage in 2012 and, later that year, he returned to the Olympics and placed fourth in both the road race and time trial.
 
Today, that story has chapters still yet to be written. A recent graduate of Middlebury College, Kelsey Phinney has her sights set on becoming a cross-country skier at the highest level. Taylor Phinney's Olympic fire continues to burn despite a horrific crash in 2014 that forced multiple surgeries, and he competed for Team USA in both the road race and time trial in Rio.
 
And Carpenter-Phinney continues to write her own story alongside her husband, Davis. She travels to watch her kids compete but also circles the globe as an advocate for the Davis Phinney Foundation, doing what she can to help those affected by Parkinson's. She's even working on writing her own book, telling stories and sharing her experiences.
 
"I think what you understand through sport is it's one of the few places where you can really take all the risk," Carpenter-Phinney said. "It's not just physical risk, it's the time you invest, the single-minded dedication most often to the exclusion of everything else. I never called it a sacrifice but I will call it a risk because you kind of risk your youth on it in some ways. I never regretted a minute of it and I don't think my kids have either, and they've had significant ups and downs. The excitement of the highs and the feeling it gives you personally and the extenuating fan base, it's really remarkable."