John Howard

John Howard was an American professional cyclist who excelled in numerous ways in the sport. He was on the US Olympic team in 1968, 1972, and 1976, and in 1971 won the gold medal in the road race at the Pan American Games. In the late 1970s he turned to the triathlon, and after finishing third at the 1980 Ironman Triathlon, won that race in 1981. In 1982, Howard placed second among four riders in the Great American Bike Race, a USA cross-country race from Santa Monica, California to New York City that would later become known as the Race Across America (RAAM). In 1985 Howard set a world bicycle speed record, recording 245.078 km/hr (152.284 mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats, a record since broken.