By Martyn Herman
SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) – American Kristen Faulkner only took up cycling seriously four years ago but in the space of four incredible days at the Paris Olympics she has scooped an historic double gold.
In the National Velodrome on Wednesday she was a key cog in the team that beat New Zealand around the boards to win the United States’ first Olympic gold in women’s team pursuit.
That followed her sensational victory in Sunday’s women’s road race when a late attack caught out some of the best road racers in the world to earn her gold.
The 31-year-old Faulkner, a former venture capitalist who rode bikes for fun, is the first American woman to win gold medals in two different disciplines at the same Olympics.
She also joined a very short list of women to achieve that feat — the others being Leontien Ziljaard-van-Moorsel in track and road racing in 2000 and the Czech Republic’s Esther Ledecka who won golds in snowboarding and Alpine skiing in 2018.
“I’m still pinching myself,” the Harvard graduate and former varsity rower, who hails from Alaska, told reporters when asked to sum up her maiden Olympics.
“It’s going to take a long time to sink in. My goal was just to make the Olympics, and then take home a medal. So to take home two is way more than I could have ever dreamed of.
“We knew we had a strong team coming in, and I feel like the lucky one because they (her team mates) have won medals before on the track and I haven’t. I just wanted to live up to their expectations. Hopefully there’s more to come.”
The U.S. team of Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Chloe Dygert and Faulkner beat Britain in the first round to set up a ride for gold later against New Zealand.
They opened up a decent lead and, although they became ragged near the end of the 4km race, held on to claim victory having won two silvers and a bronze in the three previous Games.
Valente, who will try to retain the omnium title she won in Tokyo later this week, said it had not been a perfect ride.
“I think we’re making good decisions on race day and pulling together a good ride,” she said. “It wasn’t perfect in any of our rides but I think individually we’re all capable of so much, and really putting it together as a team.”
There was talk of a world record being set in the final but Germany’s gold medal time from Tokyo proved out of reach.
“I actually think if we kept it together a little better, we could have gone faster. So it actually feels like there’s more to come.” said Williams.
Eight-times track world champion Dygert added gold to the individual road time trial bronze she won in Paris.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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