 As a freshman varsity soccer player in Long Beach, California, Janie Eikhoff suffered a knee injury that ended her soccer career. Instead of slowing down, she took up cycling. Two years later in 1986, Eikhoff had earned the title of National Junior Track Champion. A year later, she went on to win the match sprint and the 2,000 meter individual pursuit at the Junior World Championships in Italy. In 1989, Eikhoff was a 19-year-old student at Cal State, Dominguez Hills, when she was named the Women's Amateur Cyclist of the Year by the United States Cycling Federation. Janie became national champion in the kilometer time trial and was the only member of the U.S. team to earn a medal in the 1989 World Championships with a bronze in the points race. Also in 1989, while competing as a speed skater, Eikhoff won a national indoor speed skating championship. In 1990, Eikhoff switched from sprint racing to pursuit and went on to win national and goodwill games titles in the 3,000 meter individual pursuit and placed eighth in the World Championships that year. In 1991, she repeated as the U.S. national champion and placed second at the World Championships. In 1991, Janie became the U.S. women's record holder for the kilometer time trial standing start at 1 minute 12.298 seconds. This record still stands. During her career, Janie Eikhoff won 10 U.S. national titles in pursuit, time trial, and in points racing, as well as six medals at UCI World Championship events. She also won two gold medals at the Pan American Games in the pursuit and points race in 1995. From the late 1980s and for much of the 1990s, soccer player Janie Eikhoff discovered and went on to dominate the cycling track, and she never looked back.