Favorite Female Cyclists #5 - Susan DeMattei
@teamfreak16 (43618)
Denver, Colorado
January 21, 2017 12:24pm CST
We are at the midway point in my Favorite Female Cyclists series, and #5 belongs to San Rafael, California's Susan DeMattei.
Susan DeMattei is a retired cross country mountain biker. She is the first American woman to win an Olympic Medal (Bronze) in mountain biking at the 1996 Summer Olympics (it was the first Olympics that mountain biking was made an Olympic sport.) She won a Silver Medal in Cross Country at the 1994 UCI Mountain Bike World Mountain Bike Championship. From 1990 to 1996, DeMattei finished Top 3 in NORBA (American) Championships every year but one. She is in both the Mountain Bike and United States Bicycling Halls of Fame.
Unlike many cyclists that retire and still stay part of the sport, Susan DeMattei works in the surgical unit at a Gunnison, Colorado hospital.
Although Susan DeMattei did not achieve the amount of success of others in this countdown (she had the misfortune of racing against Poala Pezzo, who seemed to win every race. Eventually, Pezzo was caught cheating.) DeMattei seemed like a really nice lady. She was easy to root for.
(Info verified by Wikipedia)
8 people like this
6 responses
@crossbones27 (52917)
• Mojave, California
21 Jan 17
Those people who get caught cheating. They do not take away the win and give it to the second place finisher?
3 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43618)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Jan 17
Apparently not in this case, although she was never caught during that time frame. There was a guy who got caught caught, and they did give it to the second guy.
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (52917)
• Mojave, California
21 Jan 17
@teamfreak16 Interesting, Hopefully they get the money also. lol
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43618)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Jan 17
Yeah, cheaters are kind of a black eye on the sport.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43618)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Jan 17
I guess it's worth the risk for them. I pretty much assume that they're all cheating anyway.
@Deepizzaguy (122209)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
22 Jan 17
Thank you for sharing the story of Susan Demattei.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Jan 17
Many riders seem to be form California. Our weather must allow year around cycling.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43618)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Jan 17
That's true. You can pack in a lot of miles when it's sunny every day.
2 people like this
@reskyyandi (3608)
• Indonesia
21 Jan 17
I didn't like cheating. Cheating make sport not fun again
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43618)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Jan 17
I think there is cheating in every sport. They will never completely stop it.
1 person likes this
