June 25, 2004 (Colorado Springs, Colo.) – USA Cycling announced today the final roster of athletes in the discipline of track cycling for the 2004 Olympic Games. The U.S. will field a team of seven riders that will compete in six events on the track. Following the 2004 UCI Track Cycling World Championships last month, the U.S. secured Olympic start positions in the team sprint, keirin, and points race for the men and the individual pursuit, sprint and 500m time trial for the women. Filling those spots is a mixture of new talent and familiar veterans who endured a challenging process to simply qualify for the Games.

Leading the men’s squad is 2000 Olympic gold medalist and two-time Olympian, Marty Nothstein (Orefield, Pa.). After winning the men’s sprint in Sydney, Nothstein retreated from track cycling to pursue a career on the road where he eventually became one of the top criterium specialists in the country. Following a win in the prestigious New York City Cycling Championships in 2003, Nothstein refocused his efforts toward the track and the goal of returning to Olympic competition in Athens. With a rebuilt and much slimmed down physique compared to his glory days in the sprint, Nothstein again has medal potential, this time in the mass start keirin event. Nothstein was selected to the Olympic team based on his overall placing in the 2004 World Cup standings in which he placed 13th after competing in only two of five events in the series.

Also capable of a medal performance is Colby Pearce (Boulder, Colo.). Pearce will contest the men s points race after being selected to the team based on his third-place finish in the overall world cup standings. Pearce s highlight of the 2004 season came in the final World Cup of the season in Sydney where he captured a gold medal. Also, a bronze medal in the fourth round of the World Cup suggests that a medal is well within his reach.

Completing the men’s contingent is the team sprint trio of Adam Duvendeck (Santa Barbara, Calif.), Giddeon Massie (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and Christian Stahl (Bethany, Conn.). The cohesive unit contested the World Cup series and the world championships together and earned their position on the Olympic team with their ninth-place overall finish in the World Cup series.

Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) became the first U.S. athlete since 1998 to medal in the world championships last month with a bronze medal effort in the women’s keirin. And although the women’s keirin is not an Olympic event, Reed will still have two opportunities for Olympic success as the only rider contesting multiple events. After placing fourth at the world championships in the women s sprint, Reed earned a start in both the sprint and the 500-meter time trial in Athens.

Reed’s endurance counterpart in Athens will be 2000 Olympian Erin Mirabella (Racine, Wis.) Mirabella consistently placed in the top-five on the World Cup circuit this season in the women’s individual pursuit, a season-long performance that included three consecutive fourth-place efforts. Mirabella s fourth-place finish in the overall World Cup standings resulted in a selection to the Olympic team.

“Both USA Cycling and myself are enthusiastic about the team that has been selected to represent the United States at the Olympic Games,” commented USA Cycling CEO, Gerard Bisceglia. “Given their competitiveness and recent performances in international competition, we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do on the Olympic stage.”

With five first-time Olympians on the seven-rider roster, USA Cycling COO and Director of Athletics, Steve Johnson, feels the relatively young team has made significant progress and admits that the full results from the rebuilding process will be seen in years to come. “It’s definitely a young team of sprinters,” acknowledges Johnson. “And they are to be commended for stepping up to the plate and securing the Olympic start positions this year, both for themselves and our country. It’s certainly been the most demanding and difficult qualification process in recent history and hopefully some of the pressure should now be off. Since the retirement of our most accomplished riders a couple of years ago the young men in the sprint program have begun to develop a great foundation for the future, including the 2008 games.”

The U.S. sprint team will be coached by Andrzej Bek while the endurance riders will be coached by Des Dickie. Bek led the U.S. team to two silver medals in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta as Nothstein and Erin Hartwell placed second in the men’s sprint and one kilometer time trial respectively. Bek’s experience as a coach and director compliments his past that earned him a bronze medal on the track as an athlete at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Dickie was the head coach of the Canadian Olympic team in 1988 and 1992.

USA Cycling will officially announce the remainder of its Olympic team in the coming weeks with the eight-member road squad being named on July 6 followed by the naming of the three-member mountain bike team on July 13. In total, the U.S. will send 18 cycling athletes to the Olympic Games.

2004 U.S. Olympic Track Team

Men
Marty Nothstein (keirin)
Colby Pearce (points race)
Adam Duvendeck (team sprint)
Giddeon Massie (team sprint)
Christian Stahl (team sprint)

Women
Erin Mirabella (individual pursuit)
Jennie Reed (sprint, 500m time trial)