strongwoman, trapeze artist, competitive walker, and high-wheel cyclist
Louise Armaindo, born either LouiseorLouisa BriseboisorBrisbois (1861–1900), was a Canadian strongwoman, trapeze artist, competitive walker, and high-wheel cyclist.[1][2] Throughout the last decades of the 19th century, she was known as "the champion female bicycle rider of the world."[3]
Louise Armaindo was born Louise or Louisa Brisebois or Brisbois in 1861 in a small community near Montreal, Canada East.[1]
Armaindo was trained by Canadian athlete Tom Eck,[4] who also worked as her manager and promoter and eventually became her husband.[5] The two met in Chicago in the late 1870s, when Armaindo was performing as a strongwoman and becoming interested in pedestrianism, competitive endurance walking.[1]: 29-31 With Eck as manager, Armaindo became a pedestrienne, competing and giving exhibitions in small American towns for pay.[1]: 15
Around this time, many pedestriennes began to race high-wheel bicycles, including Armaindo.[1]: 15 She soon became a successful bicycle racer, competing against men, women, and horses.
In 1882, Armaindo raced American cyclist John Prince over 50 miles. She was given a five-mile head start, but the two eventually became so close in the race that they traded positions several times. Prince won by about a minute.[6] Armaindo was more successful when she raced Elsa von Blumen that same year. She won their championship race in Ridgeway Park, Philadelphia, becoming the women's champion of cycling.[4]
Armaindo was also known for participating in multi-day indoor cycling races, in which cyclists would ride many hours each day, with the winner determined by who logged the most miles over the entirety of the race.[3] In 1886, she held a record of 843 miles in a race of this kind.[7][8]
Armaindo died in 1900. By the late 1930s, she was almost entirely forgotten by sports historians.[1]: 4
Macy, Sue (2017-02-07). Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (with a Few Flat Tires Along the Way). National Geographic Books. ISBN9781426328558.
