Harvard Cyclist Wins Medal

A Harvard first-year student captured a gold medal in the nation's premier collegiate track cycling meet held last week in Houston.

Debra S. Cohen '94, who has cycled for both the U.S. national women's team and the Junior World Cycling team, placed first in the one-kilometer Match Sprints race at the National Collegiate Track Cycling Championships, held October 7 at the Alek Velodrome.

Strategy and Speed

Cohen--who won the same event at the National Junior Track Cycling Championships twice before--said that the victory in last week's event required a particularly demanding combination of both strategy and speed. Her victory marks the first time a Harvard student has won an individual event at the prestigious collegiate meet.

"There's a lot of strategy to use the track and use the physical advantages you have, and not let your opponent use their advantages against you," Cohen said.

John C. Allis, who works with Cohen as trainer of the Harvard cycling team, said she is a "very accomplished rider."

"Harvard has traditionally had a very strong women's cycling team, and Debra is the latest addition to that tradition," Allis said.

Cohen, who has also garnered numerous awards in speed skating, said she hopes to compete in both sports in the 1992 Olympics. She added that she began cycling at the age of nine as part of a training regimen for speed skating.

Cohen, who hails from Northbrook, Ill., has practiced the two sports five hours a day for the past few years, but said she has no preference between the two activities.