Our Senior Geoscientist with Heavy Medals
At Environmental Standards, we have so many talented staff members, but some of their talents and achievements outside of work are particularly surprising and impressive. This is definitely the case with Kent Bostick, a Senior Geoscientist working out of our Knoxville, Tennessee office. Kent, a competitive cyclist, is an Olympian!
Kent’s love of cycling started in France at the early age of 8 years old, while living just outside of Paris where his father was on assignment. In France, bike riding is very much part of the local culture. Kent recalls, “One day my Dad had been to a mom-and-pop bike store in Antony and came home with bikes for everyone. He probably took advantage of the good Dollar-to-Franc exchange rate and bought out much of the stock in the small store.”
When he moved back to the United States, the fire had been stoked and a lifelong passion was kindled that would take him around the world competing. Some of the countries he has competed in are Austria, Argentina, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Poland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guadalope, South Africa, and Sweden. On one of his more interesting trips, Kent was stranded in Poland during the Chernobyl accident and had to be evacuated.
In 1977, Kent had done so well in racing that he was invited to a national training camp in Colorado Springs. He attended several Olympic Trials and was selected as an Olympic alternate three times for the 100-km Team time trial. He continued to progress in the 100-km racing events, winning a Pan American Games Gold Medal in 1987 and six National titles.
Kent shifted gears in 1996 when the 100-km race was removed from the Olympic Games lineup to make room for other more popular events. While this was discouraging, he then focused on the 4,000-Meter Individual Pursuit, which was an Olympic event on the track. After winning three consecutive National titles and setting a record at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, he qualified for a spot to represent the United States at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. At the 1996 Olympic Trials, Kent recalls the announcer commenting, “Can a 42-year-old veteran with the body of a 20-year old beat a much younger World Champion?” In the end, Kent proved any doubters wrong when he achieved a personal best time and placed 9th at the Olympic Games.
Since the 1996 Olympic Games, Kent has won numerous Masters World and National titles and recently added another title, becoming the 2021 Masters National Champion at the age of 68. While working full time, Kent still gets his training in every week by riding 42 miles a day to and from work and putting in at least 100 miles on the weekend. One thing is for sure, Kent’s life experiences so far have been quite a ride!
