Russell Allen

Russell Allen was a track and field athlete and baseball player prior to taking up cycling as a junior in high school. With the Crebs Cycling Club of Long Beach, California he quickly made the United States Olympic team and attended the 1932 Summer Olympics as one of the four men to compete in the 4,000 metres team pursuit, in which the his nation finished fifth and last. He turned professional following the Games and rode in over thirty “six-day” races, retiring from active competition with the onset of World War II. He worked in a defense job until 1943, at which point he joined the United States Navy and served the remained of the conflict as a swimming and survival instructor in Florida and Texas. Following the war he worked as a car salesman until his 1962 retirement.

Allen remained athletically active throughout his entire life, routinely cycling 50-60 miles distances in his 80s. He also bungee jumped regularly until 2006 when, at the age of 92, he set a world record as the oldest person to have done so. His record was later broken by a 94 year-old and Allen was planning on reclaiming his title when he died suddenly at the age of 99 in April 2012, having been in excellent health just a few weeks prior. For many years he was the oldest living American Olympic cyclist and, at the time of his death, the third-oldest known Olympian for the United States overall.