by Tom Ewing
July 31, 2025
An article in the Evening Star (Washington DC) on July 31, 1935 described the “ambition” of Iona J. Allen to compete in cycling at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Miss Allen, described as a “girl cashier,” has “made a name for herself in sectional bicycle races,” and regularly trains around Hains Point, near the Potomac river, during her “free moments.” The headline, “Girl Cashier Here Seeks Bicycle Fame,” and an accompanying photograph shows Miss Allen on her bike, hands on the drop handlebars, looking poised for a ride, conveyed her sense of ambition.
Historians of cycling, women’s sports, or the Olympics may be confused by this article, because women’s cycling was not contested at the 1936 Olympics. The first time women cyclists were allowed to compete in the Olympics was amost fifty years later, during the 1984 Los Angeles games. This inconsistency is not easily explained, especially because no additional information about Miss Allen has been located in newspapers or other documentary sources.
Almost fifty years after Allen’s ambition appeared in the Evening Star, women competed in Olympic cycling for the first time at the 1984 Los Angeles games. American Connie Carpenter-Phinney won the gold medal, narrowly beating American Rebecca Twigg and German Sandra Schumacher. Carpenter-Finney began her athletic career as a speed skater, competing in the 1972 Olympics at age 15, but switched to cycling after an injury. In 1976, the Year of the Bikecentennial, she won the American national cycling road championship, a feat she repeated in 1977 and 1979. She retired from competitive cycling with 12 national and four world titles.
Capital Times (Madison), September 16, 1977
In 1977, following her second place finish at the World Championships, Connie Carpenter told her hometown newspaper: “More women should get into bicycle racing. The quality of the races and prizes are getting better and better.” This affirmation has been fulfilled in the subsequent decades, with the Olympic, world championship, and grand tour races at last realizing the ambition of Iona Allen and countless women cyclists who followed.
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