Taylor Phinney: Previous Takkle Video Face in the Crowd continues to improve in his race for the Olympics

Taylor Phinney, a senior year at Boulder High School in Boulder, Colorado is continuing his amazing run to become the next Lance Armstrong. Phinney, a past Takkle video face in the crowd recently broke his personal best time by 2 seconds with a time of 4 minutes, 22.358 seconds placed him eighth in his first-ever UCI Track World Championships in Manchester, England while his time of 3:17.523 at the 3-kilometer mark set the world record previously held by Australian Michael Ford at a time of 3:17.775. With that finish Taylor is projected to retain his 3rd overall ranking in the world where he hopes to gain a berth into the Olympics this summer in Beijing.


Taylor's father, Davis Phinney, a star sprinter nicknamed "Thor" for the 7-11 cycling team during the 80's and 90's.Taylor certainly gets his cycling skills from his father. His father remains the leader in race victories by an American, with more than 300. He was the first American to win a road stage of the Tour de France. At the 1984 Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the team time trial. Unfortunately, Taylor's father is suffering from Parkinson's disease and is set to go under brain surgery to ease the symptoms of the debilitating disease. Davis actually attended Taylor's race in England for support and put off the surgery to keep Taylor's mind at ease because he knew that no matter what if he were to get surgery it would affect Taylor just because the uncertainty of the unknown.

Taylor's mother ,Connie Carpenter, was quite the athlete herself. Connie was a world class athlete as well so the genetic lineage is strong, she finished 7th in the 1972 olympics for the 1,500 meter speed skating event. And won a national championship in rowing while attending the University of California. Not to mention the first gold medal in the 1984 debut of Road Cycling.

For Taylor, all he could ask for is a healthy father and I'm sure he would give up his aspirations of becoming a world class athlete. I wish him and his family all the best in the future and we are all rooting for Taylor to appear in Beijing in 2008!

Update: 4.7.08

On the day that Taylor Phinney's father; Davis Phinney underwent brain surgery to help with symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Taylor received the news that he would be appearing in the Olympics in Beijing. All Taylor needed was to be in the top 5 that in the world that had not won berths into the Olympics to gain an Olympic berth.

On a more serious note the surgery went well as Davis went through a 4 and a half hour procedure that had two wires installed in his brain that will eventually be hooked up to a pacemaker. The wires and pacemaker are installed in hopes to immediately reduce some of the effects that Parkinsons has dealt him. Overall it's a very relieved feeling for the family as Davis' surgery was a success and Taylor will be in his first Olympics at the age of 17.

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