Audrey McElmury

Sutherland, Sandra Wright (2016) Rainbow Quest: The Adventurous Life of Audrey McElmury, America's First World Road Cycling Champion, Iris Press, USA

Toward the end of her cycling career, McElmury and Levonas obtained business degrees at the University of Denver in hotel and restaurant management, Audrey graduating number one in her class. The two then traveled through western states, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, working in the food service industry. They retired in 1996 to West Yellowstone, Montana. They wrote a book, Bicycle Training for Triathletes *and Others based on their coaching. Audrey is featured in a chapter devoted to her in the track cycling reference "NO BRAKES! Bicycle Track Racing in the United States" published in 1996.

McElmury was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1989. Her World Champion 1969 Johnny Berry bicycle was once on loan to the Hall of Champions in San Diego, California, but has now been returned to its owner.

In 1969 she won the national omnium championship, in 1970 the pursuit and road championships. She set the national hour record, 24.8 miles at the Encino velodrome in California and held it from 1969 to 1990. McElmury retired from cycling after a crash in 1974 and took up running. She and husband Michael Levonas continued to coach cyclists and triathletes in San Diego until they left the area, retiring in West Yellowstone, Montana.

McElmury rode the world championship in Rome in 1968 and finished fifth in a race that ended in a sprint. She was picked again for the championship in Czechoslovakia the following year. The American cycling federation did not have the money to pay all the fares for the three women. It cost her $10,000 with fares, lodging and meals. Writers Alice Kovler and James McCullagh said: "The argument against funding women was based essentially on the fact that there were so few of them competing, and the dues paid by these [to the national federation] amounted to very little.

Audrey McElmury grew up in La Jolla, California, where her first sport was horse jumping, followed by surfing. She began cycling after breaking her leg after falling from a skate board in 1960. She won the Californian cycling championship in 1964, riding on velodromes because there was no other racing for women. She trained with men on the road, getting up at 4.30am for the first of two daily rides. She said the regime ended her marriage. She won the national pursuit title and the first national road championship in 1966.

McElmury married two cyclists, first Scott McElmury whom she met in 1958, when she was 15, and, in 1971, former Pan Am team member and multiple title champion Michael Levonas. She obtained a degree in zoology from the University of California in San Diego and had a son, Ian, born in 1967.

Audrey McElmury (born Audrey Phleger, January 24, 1943 in Northampton, Massachusetts – March 26, 2013 in Bozeman, Montana) was the first American cyclist to win the Road World Championship. She won in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1969, having fallen and remounted her bike. Hers was the United States' first world cycling championship since Frank Kramer won the professional sprint race in 1912 and the first ever in road cycling.