Sarah Hammer has been flying the flag (Image credit: Mitch Friedman)
In part one of Cyclingnews' interview with Steve Johnson, USA Cycling's CEO outlined the growth in performance and membership of the national federation plus the organisational activities and challenges he has encountered during his tenure. In part two he evaluates the overall effectiveness of the various programs run by USA Cycling and the implications of this in the future.
Steve Johnson points to this past season as an indication that the overall performance of American cycling has been steadily increasing. "If you look back at the year and think about superlatives, there are a lot of them - the most medals won by this country in cycling in a non-boycotted Olympics," he begins. "We had four world titles: Amber [Neben] in the time trial, Jennie [Reed] in the Keirin, Melissa Buhl in the four-cross and Taylor Phinney in the individual pursuit - the first American athlete to win a junior medal in both road and track.
"The women's program continues to set records in terms of performances, and we have a lot of young women in the program. It was also great to see Zabriskie back on top; he had a tough year, but finished it out nicely with the bronze at worlds. And Peter Stetina was the first American to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de l'Avenir since Floyd [Landis] did it."
Johnson says that progression plans include revising these programs to ensure continued success. "That's all good stuff and we are here for the long haul. We are rewriting our high-performance plan for the next quad, looking at what worked and what didn't."
