She also won the gold medal in the cycling road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as twelve U.S. national championships.

[1] Carpenter-Phinney trained with Norwegian coach Finn Halvorsen as part of the US National speed skating team that competed in the 1972 Olympics.

1976 was her first season of bicycle racing, and she won the US National Championship by beating former champion Mary Jane "Miji" Reoch.

She won the race in a sprint over fellow American Rebecca Twigg[5] and European competitors Jeannie Longo and Maria Canins.

[2] She was a three-time overall winner of what was at that time America's premier stage race, the Coors International Bicycle Classic, winning her last overall victory there in 1982.

[6] Carpenter-Phinney is married to fellow Olympic medalist and retired professional cyclist Davis Phinney, with whom she has two children, Taylor and Kelsey.