Who was the ‘Worcester Whirlwind’!

According to a USA Triathlon survey less than one percent of people who participate in triathlons are African-American.  A staggering stat, but are any of us surprised? Have Triathlon Federations around the world done enough on inequalities. Triathlon has an influential role to bring about meaningful change and this period has rightly led the sector to reflect, listen, question, learn and openly discuss how to take positive action. What then can we learn from the strong legacy of an African American sports pioneer in racially-segregated America, which has, unfortunately, melted into oblivion?

“Worcester Whirlwind.”

Marshall W. “Major” Taylor, was the first internationally famous African American athlete. He won his first bike race at age 13, in the year 1892. But Taylor, was banned from competition in his hometown of Indianapolis, and by a major national biking association. Taylor’s trainer moved with him to a more tolerant community, Worcester, Mass., where Taylor developed into the “Worcester Whirlwind.” By 1898, racing where he could, he was a record-breaking speed cyclist who was, for the first decade of the 20th century, the fastest man in the world. and a successful endurance racer, too. In 1899, he won the one-mile sprint at the ICA Cycling World Championships in Montreal, making him the first ever African-American world champion athlete. 

Cycling in those days was a dangerous life—far more so for Taylor than for his white competitors. Besides sports-related threats—such as the hallucinatory fatigue that set in during a six-day endurance race where individuals would ride almost continuously for six days and six nights, stopping only to eat or nap, covering as many miles as possible on a steeply banked indoor track. — Taylor faced discrimination from cycling groups and violence from fellow riders. Members of one major racing association, the League of American Wheelmen, tried to ban him from all tracks under their jurisdiction. While they did not succeed, individual arenas from Philadelphia to Indiana refused to let him race.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdBUSkYmeP8&t=180s

Hotels and restaurants also regularly barred him entry, which meant that while his competitors were relaxing and refuelling, he would be searching a city for a bed and a meal. Despite this adversity, Taylor continued to tear up the track and to earn his sobriquet, the ‘Worcester Whirlwind’. He racked up world record after world record—at one point, he held seven of them, in events ranging from the quarter-mile to the two-mile. Taylor winning race after race and setting records threw down the gauntlet to his racist detractors. In fact, his perseverance and excellent performance made him the first African American World Champion cyclist in 1899.

The life of a star cyclist was exciting: Taylor raced for huge crowds at Madison Square Garden, and gained a number of famous fans, including President Teddy Roosevelt. It was lucrative: by 1900, he was earning $30,000 a year, far more than most athletes of the day.  After the turn of the century he moved on to dominate competition in Europe and Australia before retiring in 1910, at age 33. He made a significant amount of money in his professional racing career, but business reversals and racial obstacles made his later life difficult. He spent his last years writing his autobiography, and selling it out of the back of his truck, before he died at 53 in a Chicago hospital.

He was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in Chicago.

It’s only in recent decades that his contributions to the sport of cycling—and to American history—have begun to gain wide recognition. In 1982, Indianapolis unveiled the Major Taylor Velodrome, an open-air bicycle track that host races every summer. Fans across the country, from Pittsburgh to San Diego, have started Major Taylor Cycling Clubs— not only remembering Taylor and his story, but also working towards diversity and equity in cycling. 

Worcester is now home to a bronze statue of Taylor (the first statue of an African American individual in the entire city) as well as a Major Taylor Road.  A fitting tribute to the ‘Worcester Whirlwind’.

His autobiography and other books on the ‘Fastest bicycle rider in the world’ can be found here: AbeBooks.co.uk