Team USA cyclist Kristen Faulkner’s unusual path to the Olympics (youtube.com)
You won 🥇 ! I watch you race !!! You made me cry !! Watching you pulling to the front with this powerful strength with your bike 🚴 !! Was amazing!!!!!! ❤️🙌 !!!
I’m so proud to watch such amazing athlete!!! 🔥🔥🔥 🤙🏼🥇 !!!! Congrats 🎊 !!! 31-year-old Harvard graduate wins Olympic gold for her country – in a sport she took up six years ago.
Kristen Faulkner Olympic Preview.
According to The Athletic, Faulkner was not originally supposed to race for the U.S. in the road race. However, after Taylor Knibb – Search (bing.com) resigned from her position to focus on the time trial and triathlon events, Faulkner was named as her replacement for the race.
Kristen Faulkner (born December 18, 1992) is an American racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women’s Continental Team EF–Oatly–Cannondale. She is the current USA National Road Race Champion,[5] and won the gold medal in the women’s cycling road race at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Faulkner was born in Homer, Alaska.
She grew up in the Alaskan fishing community along with four siblings, Katie, Andrew, William, and Nicholas. Kristen Faulkner graduated from Harvard in 2016 with a B.A in computer science, where she competed in varsity rowing.[9] She holds the university’s record for fastest 2k indoor rowing time for lightweight women.
Before that, she attended Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, where she was an honor roll student and varsity runner, swimmer, rower and venture capitalist before turning her sight to bicycling and within Four hours and 158 kilometers later, the move paid off with a historic gold medal for Faulkner Team USA.
Kristen Faulkner ended a 40-year drought for the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday. The 31-year-old became the first U.S. woman to win gold in the road race since Connie Carpenter did so in 1984 in Los Angeles.
Faulkner won the race on the 158-kilometer course with a time of 3:59:23. Faulkner pulled away late from the competition, including the Netherlands’ Marianne Vos, who took silver with a time of 4:00:21. Here’s what you need to know about Faulkner, including how she got into the race and where she is from:
Who is Kristen Faulkner?
The Alaska native was a Harvard-Radcliffe varsity rower for two years (2015-2016). In 2016, Faulkner was part of the first varsity boat for the entire season. She sat five seat in the 1V at the IRA National Championship where she helped the team earn a bronze. The Black and White also came in second place at Eastern Sprints earlier that year.
Faulkner is a 2016 graduate of Harvard, where she competed as a varsity rower. She holds the program record for the fastest 2-kilometer indoor rowing time for lightweight women. Prior to attending Harvard, she went to high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
Faulkner began competitive cycling in New York City in 2017 while she was working as an investment associate at Bessemer Venture Partners. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2018 and joined Team Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank in 2020. During her first year cycling professionally, she worked full-time as an investment associate at Threshold Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.
Last year, she was struck by a car while on a training ride in California and fractured her shin bone — an injury she feared would end her cycling career, she told the Wall Street Journal. She took a break from riding for about three months.
She won the Women’s road time trial at the 2023 Pan American Games. In October 2023, it was announced that Faulker would join the UCI Women’s Continental Team EF–Oatly–Cannondale for the 2024 season. According to her USA Cycling profile, Faulkner got into cycling while living in New York in 2016 and began racing for the TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank team in San Francisco after moving to the area in 2018.
Cycling gold medalist Kristen Faulkner’s top advice for building confidence – NBC Sports
On May 19, 2024, Faulkner won the national road racing title, 55 seconds ahead of former champion Ruth Edwards in West Virginia. Kristen Faulkner emphasized how surrounding herself with people who make her feel good has led directly to her athletic success.
Being the Underdog is an understatement for Kristen Faulkner.
The American cyclist who didn’t even qualify for the Olympics but is now going home with a gold medal after a shocking race through Paris on Sunday. It was the last 3 kilometers of the race when Faulkner managed to break free from the pack and surge far ahead in a spectacular display of vigor.
While Faulkner’s push was incredible on its own, it’s the story she carried with her that made the win so exciting. It was an exciting moment for the woman who had only begun cycling in 2017 on hobby rides through Central Park in New York City.
She grew up hiking and rowing in Homer, Alaska, and eventually joined the women’s crew team at Harvard University. It wasn’t until she moved to New York to work as a venture capitalist that she tried cycling.
I still needed that outdoors fix that was such a big part of my life,” she told NBC News in an interview that aired the night before her race. She eventually realized her failure to clip in was a result of incompatible gear.But once she figured it out, Faulkner said she frequently turned to her bike as an outlet.
She eventually quit her full-time job to race professionally after winning her first pro race in 2020. She described her journey to the Olympics as one of resilience, overcoming injury and accidents to get to the world’s top race. “It’s never a matter of if I’ll keep going, it’s just a matter of how,” Faulkner said.
Though spectators might be shocked that she walked away with any medal on Sunday, Faulkner knew she had it in her to win Gold.
She told Olympics.com that she wanted to earn a spot on that podium before she even made the team.“I want to win a medal at the Olympics,” she said. “I want to win a world championship in the time trial. And I would like to win a stage at the Tour de France.
I have some big goals, don’t I?” Bing Videos
Now, in her Olympic debut, Faulkner is walking away with a gold medal.
Faulkner had a strong start to the 2024 season with her new team. She won the Omloop van het Hageland and Stage 4 of La Vuelta Feminina. In May, she won the Road Race and finished 2nd in the Time Trial at the United States National Road Race Championships. She was then selected to join Chloé Dygert in the road race and team pursuit at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Faulkner, despite being a replacement for the 2024 Olympic team, was the first American to win gold in cycling in 40 years when she took first in the women’s road race. Faulkner finished the 158-kilometer race 58 seconds clear of Lotte Kopecky.
Kristen Faulkner, the American cyclist, achieved a remarkable feat at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. She won the gold medal in the women’s road race, becoming the first U.S. rider to do so in 40 years! 🥇🚴♀️
As the American national anthem played, she stood atop the podium with her hand on her heart, basking in the glory of her victory1. Briefly, she closed her eyes as the enormity of her win in the women’s road race started sinking in. Her victory was a testament to her determination and skill, especially after teammate Chloé Dygert’s crash during the race.
On Sunday, Aug. 4, Faulkner, As she rounded the corner for the final stretch across the Seine, the crowd began to cheer as she crossed the finish line first in the road race, “She is the genuine article,” a CNBC announcer praised. “And Kristen Faulkner, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, with a landmark US gold medal in the women’s road race.”
Again, Kristen historic and surprising win for the ages, makes her the first American woman to clinch the gold in the event, also since its debut event at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. Connie Carpenter-Phinney (usopm.org) placed first that year. Faulkner spoke to NBC News about taking a chance and leaving her venture capitalist job in New York to pursue cycling.
“I still needed that outdoor fix that was such a big part of my life,” she explained.
But, she didn’t think about leaving her job behind until she won her first race in 2020.
Speaking about her journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics, she added, “It’s never a matter of if I’ll keep going, it’s just a matter of how.”
Kristen Faulkner SHOCKS in women’s road race gold medal victory for Team USA | Paris Olympics (youtube.com) 6:48minutes HighLights
Kristen Faulkner Stuns With Gold In Olympic ~ Ending 40 Year American Drought (youtube.com)
Kristen Faulkner Olympic Rear view Mirror – Search Videos (bing.com)
Women’s road race results at 2024 Paris Olympics
First-, second- and third-place finishers win gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively.
- Kristen Faulkner (USA): 3:59:23
- Marianne Vos (Netherlands): 4:00:21
- Lotte Kopecky (Belgium): 4:00:21
- Blanka Vas (Hungary): 4:00:21
- Pfeiffer Georgi (Great Britain): 4:00:21
After
years:
Cyclist Kristen Faulkner is the latest member of Team USA to bring home a gold medal — and her victory might be one of the most unexpected yet. Faulkner, 31, initially wasn’t expected to compete in the women’s road cycling race at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
As NBC Olympics reported on July 9, the cyclist found out less than a month before the Summer Games were set to begin that she would participate in the event despite failing to qualify. She was announced as the replacement for fellow Team USA cyclist Taylor Knibb, who decided to focus on other events like the women’s triathlon.
The news that Faulkner would represent Team USA in the event came just three years after she decided to resign from her job as a venture capitalist and solely focus on her career in cycling as she looked to the sky and won the Gold Medal!!!
🥇🇺🇸 Kristen Faulkner 🇺🇸🥇
Women’s #CyclingRoad Olympic Champion 🔥
📷 @z_w_photography / @swpix_cycling
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