Marty Nothstein

Early life

Nothstein was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, one of five children to Gail Benner Nothstein and Wayne Nothstein, owner of a local automotive business, Nothstein Motors. Nothstein's paternal great grandfather was an accomplished bicycle racer at the turn of the 20th century, and bare-knuckle prizefighter. Nothstein is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.^[2]

Cycling career

Nothstein began cycling in 1987 and made his international debut in 1989, at the UCI Track Cycling World Cycling Championships in Lyon, France.

Nothstein won his first world championship medal in 1993, when he took the silver in the keirin. He became a double world champion in 1994, winning both sprint and keirin events at the 1994 World Championships. He did so while nursing a broken heel bone. Nothstein again rode with a fractured bone, this time a kneecap, as part of the U.S. team sprint squad that won the bronze medal at the 1995 World Championships.^[3]

He won a Silver medal in the sprint at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, he became the first American cyclist in 16 years to win an Olympic gold medal, when he took the victory in the sprint.

In March 2001, he turned professional (on the road) with the U.S. based Mercury Viatel team, before moving to the Navigators Insurance Cycling Team in 2002. He remained with Navigators for four years to the end of his career.

In 2004, Nothstein had success on the road as well as track, proving many people wrong; many had said that this wasn't possible for a sprint rider. In order to transfer to road riding, he lost 30 pounds compared to his weight at the 2000 Summer Olympics.^[4]

He earned the nickname The Blade for his razor thin victory margins. He was also called this for his skill at cutting through a field of riders into first place.

Post-cycling career

Nothstein retired from competitive cycling after the 2006 season,^[5] and used to drive in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car for Follow A Dream.

Nothstein won two races in the 2007 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series season; one at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida in the series’ season opener, the other in mid-July at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois. He finished 11th in points in the 2007 NHRA Alcohol Funny Car season.^[6]

As of 2017, Nothstein was living in Lowhill Township, Pennsylvania, and working as executive director of the Valley Preferred Cycling Center. In February 2015, Nothstein announced he was running as a Republican for the Board of Commissioners of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,^[5] marking his first foray into politics. In May, Nothstein received the highest amount of votes of any Republican in the primary election,^[7][8] collecting 8,260 votes. That was 104 votes higher than the next-highest Republican vote-getter, and the second-most overall of any candidate, behind Democratic candidate Dan Hartzell's 8,324 votes.^[8] Nothstein ran on a slate with Republican incumbents Brad Osborne, Vic Mazziotti, and Amanda Holt, who ran on a platform of continuing what they called a successful record of cutting taxes and creating a more efficient government in the Republican-led board of commissioners.^[9]

In October 2017 Nothstein announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district for the 2018 United States House of Representatives election following the announcement of the district's Republican incumbent, Charlie Dent, that he would not run for another term.^[10] As of September 17, 2018, Nothstein's Democratic opponent Susan Wild was up 46% to 40% in a survey of all registered voters in the 7th congressional district taken by a Monmouth University poll.^[11]

Additionally, Nothstein enjoys farming his land near Berks County and is an avid outdoorsman.