Boulder's Phinney off to good start

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 15, 2008 at 10:41 a.m.
Updated August 15, 2008 at 10:50 a.m.

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Photo by Christophe Ena/Associated Press

Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney, che parents of Boulder cyclist Taylor Phinney, cheer their son on during qualifying in the men's individual pursuit Friday. Taylor Phinney finished seventh to advance to Saturday's elimination round.

Photo by Getty Images

Boulder cyclist Taylor Phinney competes in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games men's individual pursuit qualifying at the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing on Friday.

BEIJING — When Taylor Phinney looked up during the Olympics Opening Ceremonies, there was his mother. He did a double take.

Connie Carpenter-Phinney had moved down to the second row. Simply put, she could barely contain herself.

"She was jumping and down, she was so excited," Phinney said. "I'd never seen her that excited."

At the men's individual pursuit cycling preliminaries Friday at the Laoshan Velodrome, there was Carpenter-Phinney again. Wearing a black shirt and with fiery red hair, she wasn't hard to miss in the front row as she jumped up and down each time her son passed.

Phinney, the 18-year-old from Boulder, qualified seventh for Saturday's eight-man final, a bit worse than he would have liked. But you could hardly tell from his mother's excitement.

Carpenter-Phinney, though, isn't just cheering for her son, who made the Olympics after taking up track racing just 10 months ago. She's cheering for husband Davis Phinney, who has made great strides battling Parkinson's Disease and has made it to Beijing after some uncertainty he would.

Phinney's father in April underwent Deep Brain Stimulation. A pacemaker was implanted in his chest, with cables running up to two tiny electrodes that were implanted into his brain. They help block abnormal signals that cause tremors.

Davis Phinney, 49, had a bit of a setback last month when he had to go home from Cape Town, South Africa, where his son was racing, to rest.

But sitting next to his wildly cheering wife Friday, he was feeling better than he had in a long time, with his tremors all but gone.

"It's the best part of a very special year for the Phinney family," he said. "My health has been a distraction and a concern for the whole family for a long time, and for once I feel like now we can just let the kids (also daughter Kelsey, 13) flourish - and especially Taylor.

"He's an Olympian. I never would have thought I'd be able to say that about my kid at 18. You can use every cliche in the book, but this is what parents' dreams are made of. Wow."

Olympic dreams run in the family. Davis Phinney won a cycling bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Carpenter-Phinney won a cycling gold in 1984 and also competed as a speedskater at the 1972 Winter Games.

"It's been incredible," Carpenter-Phinney said of being at the Olympics with the entire family. "It's (her son's) first Olympics, and he slayed some dragons out there ... One thing you need to know. I was seventh in my first Olympics, and he was seventh (in qualifying)."

Carpenter-Phinney, though, had to wait 12 years to win a medal. Phinney hopes to take care of that today.

But it won't be easy. Qualifying seventh with a time of 4:22.86, about a half-second shy of his personal best, Phinney must begin Saturday's elimination rounds against No. 2 qualifier Hayden Rouston of New Zealand.

"I know Hayden, and I think I can take him," said the precocious Phinney, who has been training with the New Zealand team. "He's a good friend of mine, but you got to leave everything behind when you get on the track."

Phinney was cheered on by about 20 friends and relatives, who mostly wore red T-shirts that read on the front, "Go T." Phinney was so excited he started out too fast, which tired him for the last part of the race.

"I know I'm at the Olympics and I think about the fact that I've been training for four years just to get to the biggest race of by life," he said. "But I've only been doing this for a year. I'm just savoring the experience instead of worrying about it."

He's also savoring being able to look up and see his father.

"It's pretty cool," Phinney said. "Hopefully, it's the beginning of a new era for him ... Hopefully, as he gets better, he can come to more my events and be there cheering for me. The future is bright."

While there remains no cure for Parkinson's disease, Davis Phinney said the surgery has given him a new lease on life.

"I was worried about just being able to weather living in my own body for another year or two years or five years," he said of his tremors once having been so bad. "But surgery was clearly so successful."

Davis Phinney isn't yet to the point where he can jump around wildly, cheering for his son. But he has his wife to do that.

• August 15, 2008

  1:23 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  coloradovet writes:

  What a great family! I got to do a bike ride with Davis Phinney out to Niwot back in the 80s. It was so cool! CONGRATS!!

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