Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 31
Kristen Faulkner ended a 40-year-drought for the U.S. in the Paris Olympics — in a sport she picked up for fun six years ago.
On Sunday, the 31-year-old became the first American rider to win gold in the women’s road race since Connie Carpenter did so in the 1984 Los Angeles games.
Faulkner grew up hiking and rowing in Homer, Alaska, a small city on the Kenai Peninsula, and joined the women’s crew team at Harvard University, where she graduated in 2016.
She didn’t start competitive cycling until 2017 when she moved to New York to work as a venture capitalist.
“I still needed that outdoors fix that was such a big part of my life,” the Olympian told NBC News in a recent interview.
Faulkner wasn’t even supposed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics but was called up to Team USA in early July after Taylor Knibb resigned her spot in the road race to focus on the Olympic time trial and triathlon events.
“This is a dream come true,” she told reporters after the race. “I’m still looking at that finish line sign wondering how my name got there.”
Source: CBS News
