Carl Otto SCHUTTE

Although Carl Schutte never won a national championship, he deserves acclaim among American cyclists as being our first individual cycling medalist who raced against foreign competition. A small, very thin rider, Schutte was from Kansas City but he represented the St. Louis Cycling Club. He won the final Olympic trials by three minutes over Walden Martin after having trailed Martin at the Western regionals. At the Olympics, Schutte never led and as early as the 120 km. mark he was 13 minutes behind eventual winner, Rudolph Lewis of South Africa. However he never was worse than sixth at any check point, and with only 55 km. remaining, he was second. But he was passed by one rider near the end and his time of 10-52:38.8 for 200 miles gave him third place individually and led the U.S. to the team bronze. Schutte's career was in the family lumber business. Schutte never stopped riding his bicycle recreationally and when the 1932 Olympics came to Los Angeles, he came out of retirement, when he was 44-years-old, and rode in some of the regional qualifying tryouts for the Olympic team and made it to the final trials in San Francisco.