On Sunday, Kristen Faulkner pulled off a stunning upset to win gold in the women’s Olympic road race. The U.S. rider surprised pre-race favourites Lotte Kopecky and Marianne Vos to take the win on Sunday.
Three days later, Faulkner was back on top of an Olympic podium, earning a second gold medal in just four days.
Faulkner was part of the four-rider U.S. team pursuit squad that earned gold on Wednesday at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. Faulkner, Chloé Dygert, Jennifer Valente and Lily Williams averaged 58.942 km/h in their ride to gold, edging out the New Zealand team by six tenths of a second.
The U.S. team’s winning time, 4:04.346, is just 0.064 seconds off of the Olympic and world record set by the German team at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Dygert, Valente and Williams were part of the U.S. team that earned bronze in Tokyo. Faulkner’s addition helped boost the squad to a gold medal performance.
With that win, Faulkner becomes part of a very exclusive roster of riders to earn medals in two different sports at the same Games. Not bad, considering Faulkner was a late-stage addition in the road race, only earning her spot when Taylor Knibb withdrew.
Tom Pidcock attempted a similar feat in Paris. After winning gold in the men’s cross country mountain bike race, the Brit was 13th in the men’s road race.
Canadians close out pursuit in eighth
The Canadian women’s team pursuit squad were up against Australia in their final. Maggie Coles-Lyster, Sarah van Dam, Erin Attwell and Ariane Bonhomme lined up in the race for seventh. The Canadians fell behind early on, but fought back to within a second over the last kilometre of the 4,000m race. Australia was able to hold on to finish 0.549 seconds ahead, taking seventh. The Canadians averaged 57.121 km/h to finish eighth in a time of 4:12.097.
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