A single donation of $2.5 million from the Hellman Foundation was awarded to USA Cycling Foundation earlier this month to bolster women's cycling programmes. This grant will increase resources to the governing body for operations of women’s high-performance Olympic Games disciplines - road, mountain bike, track, BMX racing and BMX freestyle, as well as the Paralympic cycling disciplines of road and track.
"Transformative" was the word used to describe the influx of monetary support by the Hellman Foundation, based in San Francisco, California with a legacy of Warren and Chris Hellman and a broad mission that includes building equity and opportunity through philanthropy.
“The Hellman Family has been a longtime supporter of USA Cycling, and they have been especially supportive of our Women’s Track Endurance program. Today’s announcement marks their incredibly ambitious and generous approach to women’s cycling and women’s sport in general,” said USA Cycling’s CEO Brendan Quirk.
In a press release, USA Cycling noted that $1 million of the "transformative $2.5 million grant" would be "specifically intended to support women’s programs delivered in the years 2025-2028 to maximize success at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games".
While The Hellman Foundation was established in 2011, the Hellman Family has been a major supporter of the USA Cycling Foundation since 2000. Their generous support culminated in a record-breaking summer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games where US women claimed a record six medals across four cycling disciplines, including three gold medals - Kristen Faulkner in the road race, Jennifer Valente in women's Omnium and the same duo alongside Lily Williams, Chloe Dygert in the women's Team Pursuit.
A second part of the new grant will establish an endowment, the Women's Cycling Fund, to develop and sustain multi-disciplinary, high-performance programmes for women through 2043. USA Cycling said it aimed to double the impact by asking for one-to-one matching donations, with a goal of creating a $3 million fund "to empower women athletes in the sport for generations to come".
“This gives USA Cycling a huge boost in momentum as we finalize our plan to earn 10 medals at the LA28 Olympics, and we’re eager to kick off the Women’s Cycling Fund matching campaign to ensure strength and stability for our women’s program for decades to come,” Quirk added.
At the Paris Olympics, US women accounted for two medals at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome by dominating the women's Omnium and Team Pursuit.
Faulkner added a gold medal in the women's road race, becoming the first US cyclist to race to gold medals in both track and road cycling at a single Olympics. Dygert went third in the individual time trial in Paris for a bronze medal.
Two silver medals at the Paris Olympic Games were earned by Perris Benegas in BMX Freestyle and by Haley Batten in cross-country mountain bike.
“We've been putting together different mixes of riders for years [at the world level]. To be able to pull together a really strong ride and have it actually pay off is, it's a feeling that I am not going to forget,” said Valente, who now has five medals in her career from three Olympic Games, and is the most-decorated female cyclist from the US in Olympic competitions.
