As an
Olympic Bronze medalist and
Tour de France stage winner, Phinney has the most victories of any cyclist in American history. From the late 1970s until his retirement from professional cycling in 1993, Phinney achieved 328 victories. Phinney is one of only three Americans who have won multiple stages of the Tour de France.
Greg LeMond and
Lance Armstrong are the others. In 2000, Phinney was 40 when he was diagnosed with young-onset
Parkinson's disease after years of feeling "off". Shortly after his Parkinson's diagnosis, Davis and his family moved to Italy. While living there, Phinney was contacted by Kathleen Krumme, a cyclist who asked Phinney to let her use his name in conjunction with her ride (the
Sunflower Revolution) to benefit Parkinson's. From this connection, the Davis Phinney Foundation was born. Phinney realized there were many ways he could improve the quality of his daily life with Parkinson's, including through exercise. He started the Davis Phinney Foundation as a way to fund and advance research that demonstrates the benefits of
exercise,
speech therapy, and other behavioral elements that are critical to quality of life with Parkinson's. It has since expanded to include a variety of programming that helps people with Parkinson's take a more active role in their own care. ==Research==