About Kim Geist

                                          – The Beginning -
    Kim began racing bicycles at the young age of nine when she was introduced to the sport of track cycling at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome (now the Valley Preferred Cycling Center) in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania.  Having loved riding her bike around her neighborhood on a daily basis, she quickly fell in love with the new challenges of riding a special track bike with no brakes and only one gear and the inability to stop pedaling.

    She also very quickly came to love the competition of cycling and began racing on the road as well as on the track at the velodrome.  She competed in her first national competition in Trexlertown when the 1997 Junior National Track Cycling Championships were held there.  She won a bronze medal and was from this point on hooked on setting and meeting bigger goals.

    Throughout her junior, or teenage years, she won more Junior National Championship titles than any other rider in history.  She qualified for the USA Junior National Team and competed two years in a row at the Junior World Championships, winning two bronze medals in what became her favorite track event, one called the individual pursuit.  She also came within centimeters of winning another medal in the road competitions, but the photo finish picture was not on her side.

After her junior years, she competed primarily in road competitions.  She supported teammates who were World Champions and Olympic Champions to many race victories all the while garnering accolades of her own, highlighted by a berth to the USA 2007 Pan American Games team. The Pan American Games are an Olympic warm-up event held every four years, the year before the Olympic Games.  Unfortunately, shortly after this event, Kim did not even get the opportunity to try to make the 2008 USA Olympic Team; in August 2007 she was involved in a horrific accident with a tractor-trailer truck while on a routine training ride.  She was hospitalized with severe injuries and went through a lengthy recovery process.

                                          - The Olympic Quest -
    After the accident, Kim was lucky to be able to ride a bike again, let alone compete at the level at which she had before the accident.  Through diligent training she was able to work herself back into the physical and mental shape that allowed her to be one of the best in the world prior to the accident.  Just a little over a year after, in October of 2008, Kim rode to be crowned National Champion in the individual pursuit as well as the team pursuit events at the National Track Cycling Championships.

    With these wins marking her return to racing form, she formulated a goal – competing at the 2012 Olympic Games in track cycling.  She laid out a four year plan with several goals acting as stepping-stones along the way.  With track cycling being held in a wintertime season, year one was the winter of 2008/2009.  Kim set her goal of competing in one World Cup event which is one type of major international event of the track cycling season, the other being the World Championships.  Kim met her goal by being selected to represent the USA at the Beijing World Cup.  She raced to a stellar 6^th place in the individual pursuit at this event.  She then surpassed her goal for the year by being selected to also compete at the Copenhagen World Cup.  She raced to 7^th place in the individual pursuit in this event, but improved her time over her Beijing performance by an outstanding amount.  The USA National Team chose to compete in two World Cup competitions of the 2008/2009 season; Kim was selected to both.

    Kim expects to continue to improve even more upon her results at these events in a very timely fashion and to be selected to several more key events as stepping-stones along the road to the Olympic Games.  To be able to continue on with the level of training and competition necessary to reach her ultimate goal, she needs a large amount of support along the way. 
    Please visit the sponsorship page to find out if you can help Kim reach her goal.