scozim 

Saw this article today in the Seattle Times. There's a lot of controversy right now about the homeless situation in Seattle.

riverdrifter

Sad story.

horatio 

Wow. Never would have guessed.

SpeedofLite 

Man, I had not heard that either. She certainly shined brighter than most at one time.
Makes one wonder about all the other names that were huge at one time, but you don't hear about anymore.
Thanks for posting.

DiabloScott

Wow, that is really sad.
She was something.

bikemig 

Thank you for sharing and yes wow.

Nathanael47

Sounds like a hard life even from the beginning.
Great piece of journalism. I'm always curious about the circumstances that bring people to these extremes.

calamarichris

She sure made enough money for Trek, Pro-Tec, and for the cycling magazines.

Reynolds 

Sad story indeed. I wonder why she never tried any cycling related work - at least the article doesn't mention it.

Chombi1 

One would think that there would be some sort of support system for these Olympic veterans that gave so much of themselves to represent our country.
Sure, the biggest stars in the sport go on to become successes after leaving their sport, but not all athletes can cope with the change after they retire and the cheering dies down.
I hope she eventually gets back on her feet and finds her path again in life. She gave us so much when we watched her competing in the sport we loved those many years ago.

ThermionicScott 

Yeah, and from what I've gathered, it's hard to become un-homeless once you are in that state.

It sounds like Rebecca has anxiety, which can absolutely get in the way of normal "adulting", but not the types of mental illness often associated with homeless people. I admire the selflessness of not wanting to occupy space at a shelter that could go to someone in greater need. Hope things work out for her.

dweenk

I am not angry about this - it makes me sad that we have so much wealth and spend it so foolishly. Seems that we have a talented woman with a mental health issue that is not being addressed, and that is partly of her choosing because she has a mental health problem.

Darth Lefty 

My wife is an LMFT who worked at a hospital that specialized in providing mental health services for the homeless. She hated it - it was a cynical exercise. The police bring them in when they cause a scene or almost die. The hospital medicates them, gets them stable, kicks them out in three days with a prescription bottle in their hands. And then bills the state government. Someone does find them a place to go, but no one makes sure they go there. There's no long term plan.

In some ways this state does a much better job than others. There was a hospital in Nevada that would put them on a bus and dump them out of state. The press called it "Greyhound therapy." In other ways we do worse. Probably because of the good weather we don't have shelters like cities in the north, and so we get town sized camps.

curbtender

It's never easy to watch, but independent people often fight the war in their head when they become dependant. She said herself that she left the Olympics when the organisation's goal to repeat past success didn't match with hers. No one sets a goal to be homeless, but if that's the choice she makes, it's still her choice and not someone else's decision. I hope she finds what she needs.

texaspandj

This is a personal mental health issue not a where the U. S. needs to allocate money issue.

CliffordK

Cash doesn't necessarily roll in as much for female athletes as their male counterparts.

How many boom and bust athlete careers are there? It is almost as if they should be forced into an annuity payment system.



So, she was born in 1963. Quit cycling in 1996, at age of 33.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Twigg

Apparently pretty abrupt severing ties over a disagreement over the bike.
One has to wonder if that stubbornness both helped her in her cycling career, but ultimately destroyed her in her post cycling occupational career.

And, investing her whole life from childhood to age 33 into cycling, then suddenly leaving cycling, could be an extraordinary difficult transition.

And, Rebecca Twigg on the GT Superbike that destroyed her career.



Step Through version?



And, of course, as a final note of irony, the GT Superbike was later banned by the UCI.

https://cyclingtips.com/2016/08/the-...e-engineering/

gugie 

Here's an ironic post.

Lemond1985

People who take up a sadistic sport like pro cycling can be very intense, borderline mentally-ill individuals. I think it was Armstrong that said "Normal people don't race in the Tour de France." Those near-psychotic tendencies can give a person an edge in competition, but can cause unexpected problems when the person retires and tries to live a normal, white picket fence, 9-5 job, 2.3 children type-of-life.

I think the USCF should consider sponsoring an old folks home for retired riders. At least the film industry, say what you will about them, does that much for its people when they can no longer look after themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denville_Hall

Mr. Spadoni 

CliffordK

There are a lot of child actors that struggle later in life.

The boom & BUST really affects a lot of people.

79pmooney

Especially a rider like Twigg who brought in some much money to sponsors, the races and the federation, The current VeloNews article says she never made more than $50,000/year. Two Olympic medals, her face on magazines. Gold for the cycling industry.

Ben

63rickert

The sadism was in the USCF. Does no one remember the LA 84 Olympic blood-doping scandal? Rebecca was one of those who did not want to do it. At all. There was coercion. It was a botched hurry-up job of blood-doping that, surprise, made her sick. Eddy Borysewicz as vampire. How that guy is walking free is beyond me. The "walkout" at '96 Olympics was about using the sponsor's experimental superbike that simply did not work. She could have won that easy riding her own bike or most any bike. Just as she would have had Olympic gold in '84 if racing clean. The lady was vulnerable and the lady was abused. Abused a lot. One of the few who has spoken freely about how it all worked is Inga Thompson, mentioned in the article. If you look up her articles and interviews you will get a good idea how bad it was. Cycling for young women same as gymnastics or tennis or ballet. Coaches who get off on abusing girls. As long as USCF excels at fundraising and pays off USOC no rules and no restraints. Follow Inga's example and don't let your kids or any other family go near competitive cycling.

since6

It's the truth of sports and the arts, to be the best a lot of the rest that balances us doesn't occur, and those who make money off the artist or the athlete are all about the money. The history of athletes and artists is littered with Mozart dying in a mass pauper's grave, Rebecca Twigg, etc. Look how hard it was in baseball, basketball and football for the professionals to acquire any form of income equality with the owners, which is still lagging way way behind. The person that makes the sport, that suffers a broken body and/or mind in the case of full contact sports, that person walks away with pennies on the dollar compared to the person who uses them and tosses them away. And no I don't care if they are currently making millions, remember that money has to last for a life time as most have few other skills due to the necessity of constant training to fall back upon. And their millions are nothing compared to the billions of the owners. Why do you think the College Semi-Pro Football and Basketball programs, farm systems for their respective professional leagues, fight so hard against paying their players for their services or allowing them to enter into contracts for the sale of their rights to gaming and/or other media. It isn't because of the sacred "student athlete", it is all about money, their making money off the "student athlete", at least in this respect baseball is honest paying for their Farm System, rather than letting the state taxpayers pay. But enough, a very few of the Professional Athletes, Artist, end up like Magic Johnson, after all no one at art auction houses want to give back 10% of the proceeds of sale for a piece of art exchanged for a meal, like Van Gough. No they have a different view commonly expressed as: Tough luck buddy, you bum.

Tautatis

A very very sad story. It happens to a lot of Americans with talents - academics and sports.

You nailed it. It is very clear from the article there is mental health issues here and not just being kicked to the curb or quitting a job and - far from not being able to find work etc.

CliffordK

Whew... peanuts

Of course, that was 25 or 30 years ago, so enough to pay off a small house, but certainly not living like royalty. And, hard to build up a lifetime's worth of savings.

Was college put aside to pursue pro sports?