Regina Schleicher
The German-born sprinter’s birthday was on 21 March. She won the 2005 UCI World Road Championships and was national champion. Her father, who was a cycling coach, led her to much success in her career; among other achievements the U23 national titles and elite women national titles and the victory at the Road World Championships in Madrid in 2005. Besides being active in pro cycling, she completed training as a preschool teacher. Early on in her career, she relocated from Germany to Northern Italy due to better weather and training conditions but in 2007 she suffered a serious fall and sustained major injuries, which eventually forced her to retire in 2010. In more recent years she opened a bee farm in Camaiore, Tuscany, supplying the regional markets and tourists with locally-sourced honey.
Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel
The Dutch former rider celebrated her 52nd birthday on 22 March. She is a two-time World road and time trial champion. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, she had the most successful Olympics ever by a female cyclist, winning the individual pursuit in world record time, the road race and the individual time trial, and added a silver medal on the track. She also held the World Hour Record from 2003 until 2015. But all was not smooth sailing. For eight years during the 1990s, she battled anorexia but was eventually was able to overcome the illness. After retiring from the sport, she started to run Leontien huis, a place where survivors of anorexia and sufferers of the illness come together to learn from and support each other.
Rebecca Twigg
Born on 26 March 1963 in Hawaii, Twigg is a six-time world champion on the track. This gifted athlete is also the holder of 16 US championships and two Olympic medals. Graduating with a computer science degree, she later worked as a programmer but found the transition from professional sport to another career rather challenging to the point she became homeless. She sadly slipped into anonymity on the streets of Seattle and only more recently has her plight surfaced in the media. |
