Misty Dong

Filed under Hall Of Fame on May 01, 2018 | Comment(s)

In the earliest days of bicycle motocross, very few girls had what it took to hang with the guys on these rocky, dirt clod infested goat-paths that we called BMX tracks. 
That is ...until Northern California’s Misty Dong came along. 

Starting out in the mid-70’s, Misty was fast from the very beginning, winning dozens of national events in multiple sanctions - including a class win at the first ever ABA Grands in 1978. 

While that was a first, it wasn’t her last. She would go on to do it again in 1980, and winning at Grands soon became a habit - as she would go on to win the UBR and NBA Grands in 1979 and 1981.

In a time when factory sponsorship for girls was a rare offer, Misty represented some of the biggest brands in BMX - from Patterson Racing to George Anthill’s Raleigh BMX team, helping pave the way for the girls of today. 

In 1984, she became the first female to perform a bicycle evaluation for a major BMX magazine - testing the Raleigh R-6000 in the February issue of Super BMX magazine - and also appeared in two BMX TV commercials (including one for Bugle chips, with RL Osborn and Mike Buff). 

Living the dream of every teenage girl at the time, Misty was chosen as one of the only girl racers in the infamous BMX episode of  “CHiP’s” - getting to hang out with our idols, John and Ponch.

Anybody remember the BMX scene in the movie Uncommon Valor - starring Gene
Hackman? 
       Yeah .. Misty was in that one, too.

In her prime, she was a tough competitor and an inspiration for every girl who ever threw a leg over a BMX bike. Just ask the BMX Hall of Fame’s very first female inductee, Cheri Elliott, and she’ll tell you that her first BMX idol was Misty Dong.