Debbi Kalsow: a Different Kind of Pioneer

I met Debbi Kalsow at a NICA cross-country race in Prescott, Arizona, where Kalsow was busy preparing for the onslaught of high-school athletes who stop by the Pivot Cycles Chill Zone after crossing the finish line for food, refreshments and to trade stories. NICA events are staffed almost entirely by volunteers (Pivot founder Chris Cocalis "volunteered" me to ride sweep for the Freshman and Junior Varsity races), so it would be easy to assume that this kind-hearted 52-year-old with a youthful smile was a race-mom who was doing her part for the cause.

federation in the Eastern USA) who built the first BMX track in Lansing, Michigan, so he couldn't refuse. Debbi turned out to be a natural, eventually becoming one of the top Powder Puff competitors in the country. By 1980, the Kalsows had moved to Arizona, where the family built a four-track BMX empire in the Phoenix area. Dad prepared the tracks and did the announcing. Mom ran the concession stands, and Debbi raced.


Kalsow doesn't dwell in the past, so it took a while to learn the back story. "We could race the Nationals and Grand Nationals, but there were no points - no number one plate for girls." says Kalsow. "The points series was for the boys only. That's how you got the plate. I could complain all I wanted, but I was just a teenage girl. Nobody was going to care what I had to say."

BMX at the time, didn't even bother to segregate female competitors beyond age groups. Boys could graduate to the expert class and eventually turn pro. Girls were, um, girls. Debbi's knight in shining armor was her dad, then a key member of the ABA. Dennis marched Debbi's demands for fair and equal treatment to the BMX federations, and in 1982, the ABA was the first to expand their series to include women. Kalsow won it and went on to earn the coveted number plate from the NBA, NBL and USBA as the remaining federations followed suit. On the heels of her success, "Powder Puff" disappeared from official nomenclature.

Debbi Kalsow's last entry in the record books is the 1984 7UP 15 and over Girls World Champion. Not officially recognized by the UCI (which waited until 1996 to grant BMX the rainbow jersey), the rebadged Jag BMX World Championships was the last prestigious title that Kalsow earned before she smashed head first into her sport's glass ceiling. There was no turning pro for women. The unspoken truth was that Kalsow could hover in the amateur division indefinitely, or she could seek employment elsewhere.


Kalsow left that final battle for other female racers to fight, and in 1985, the promising 17-year old walked away from the sport at the top of her game, got a job, found a husband, raised two children, and didn't look back for over 30 years.

"An old friend of mine from the racing days found me on Facebook," said Kalsow. "He insisted that BMX had changed for the better. He said the tracks in San Diego had classes for adults and kept urging me to try at least one race. He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and vowed to send me a cruiser class race bike - which he did..."



There were many more questions, but Pivot's NICA sanctuary is adult free. Shouts and bells announced the first wave of Varsity girls were screaming past the finish line and I, along with the younger men occupying the shade, were quickly ushered out of the Chill Zone. Debbi's kids had arrived.

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