PARIS – Homer’s Kristen Faulkner arrived in Paris as just another of the 592 Olympians on Team USA.
Unheralded and unknown — at least compared to the contingent’s megastars, like sprinter Noah Lyles and swimmer Katie Ledecky — she will leave having made Olympic history, winning two gold medals over a four-day stretch in two distinctly different disciplines.
And to make the fairytale even more compelling, national and international media have been falling over themselves to recount her improbable journey to becoming one of the great stories of these Games — how she only tried the sport in 2017, at the age of 24, after attending a free clinic in New York City, where she was working in venture capital after graduating from Harvard.
“It hasn’t hit me yet, be honest,” she said Thursday evening, reflecting on the whirlwind experience in an interview at “USA House,” where she was about to be celebrated at a special event. “It’s a big deal to me right now. And it’s definitely more than I expected from the Olympics. But I haven’t really turned on social media yet too much. I haven’t read a lot of articles. I’ve tried to stay out of the media until my race was over, and that was just last night. And today has been a full day of media. So, I actually haven’t been a consumer of the media yet. And when I do, it will hit me a bit harder.”
Last weekend, the 31-year-old, who was a varsity rower while at Harvard, sprinted past a few of her much-more decorated rivals to seize gold in the 158-kilometer road race, a race that took her just under four hours to complete. Then, after a day off on Monday, she was at the velodrome track in the team pursuit that began on Tuesday. That event, which wrapped up Wednesday, features head-to-head races that only take about four minutes. The four-person American squad won gold in the final by defeating New Zealand, finishing just a fraction of a second off the world record.
Making Faulkner’s accomplishments even more remarkable is the uncertainty she had coming into the Games. She is first and foremost a road racer, though she enjoys the track to help her with her speed and sprinting explosiveness while savoring the team aspect of the discipline.
She originally didn’t qualify for the road race, with Team USA only being given two spots. But she was selected to be part of the team pursuit. Then, not long before the Games, a spot opened up for the road race when Taylor Knibb, who had earned an automatic qualifying spot, decided to focus solely on her triathlon competition. So Faulkner was given a choice. She could stick with just the team pursuit, or try for the double.
She viewed the situation as she would in her previous life as a risk analyst in the business world.
“I had done some race simulations, followed by a rest day, followed by a track day,” she explained. “So, I did have a good sense of what my form and fitness would be at team pursuit if I did do the road race. And I did have a good sense of how my fitness felt going into the road race. But to be honest, you’re never 100 percent confident about anything on any race day. Maybe you didn’t sleep well the night before, maybe you have jitters and nerves, or as a woman, maybe you’re on your cycle. And there’s going to be unknowns on race day that you can’t control — the weather, the heat, potential crashes in front of you. There’s so many things that could come into play and make a difference. But at the end of the day, I was confident enough. And I think that’s what I needed, was to just feel was confident enough.”
She acknowledged that not all athletes would have taken the risk, but that she was not going to waste time and energy dwelling on all the what-ifs.
“I think at the end of the day, when I decide to do something, I do it 100 percent,” she said. “I might have some doubts, but once I make my decision, I don’t look back. I have to really stand by my decision, and stick by my decision, and have conviction in it. So yeah, when I decided to do the road race, and I showed up, I said: ‘OK, I’m not here to save myself for the team pursuit. I’m not here to question whether I belong here. I’m here to go win a medal.’ And I think showing up with that mindset made the difference in the road race.”
The win made Faulkner the first American rider in 40 years to win a medal in the road race. She insists that both medals are equally meaningful, but in different ways.
“The challenges and obstacles of the journeys for each one is so different,” she said. “Each one has really brought out different parts of me and helped me grow in different ways. And I think for that reason, each one has been really special. I think the road race has been a much greater personal journey, and more of a personal obstacle for me over the last few years. And I think team pursuit was more of a team challenge that we overcame. And those are two very different experiences, but they’re both super valuable.”
When told that among her list of historic accomplishments is becoming the first Alaskan to ever win multiple Olympic gold medals, she said she did not know that.
[Here are Alaskans who have won medals in the Olympics]
“But I was aware that there haven’t been many Americans with two golds in two disciplines in the same Olympics. So, yeah, it’s (all) quite special,” said Faulkner, who loved swimming as a child growing up in Homer, and dreamed of becoming an Olympian when watching the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
In fact, Faulkner became just the third woman from anywhere to win in two different disciplines at a single Olympic Games. The others were Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands — also in track and road cycling — in 2000, and Esther Ledecka of the Czech Republic, in alpine skiing and snowboarding in 2018.
Faulkner was also happy to point out that she did know she was far from the first Alaskan to win an Olympic medal, and that she is thrilled to be joining such a great list. In Paris, Faulkner was one of three athletes with Alaska connections to earn medals. Eagle River’s Alev Kelter left with bronze as part of Team USA’s rugby sevens squad, while former UAF standout Sagen Maddalena claimed a silver medal as part of Team USA’s riflery team.
Faulkner noted Lydia Jacoby’s swimming gold in Tokyo was an Olympic moment for the state that had been at the top of her mind for a while too.
“She was super inspiring for me. And I know there have been some rowers and wrestlers, actually from my hometown, who’ve been to the Olympics before. I think there’s definitely some inspiring athletes that I drew inspiration from as a kid, so I hope I can get more girls on bikes in Alaska and inspire the next generation of female athletes.”
Although Faulkner moved away from Homer in high school to attend Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, and has lived out of the state ever since then, she said home will always be Homer. It’s where her parents still operate the Land’s End Resort, and where she helped out as a child learning about the family business, as did her four siblings, who now all live in California.
Visits back to Homer are few, far between, and brief — typically only around the Christmas holidays. But last summer was a memorable exception.
Faulkner was training in California in advance of the Tour de France Femmes, when she was hit by a car and suffered a knee fracture. It meant indoor rehabilitation had to replace outdoor road training.
She decided to do that rehab in Homer.
“Exactly why I chose to do it in Homer is because I could do it anywhere,” said Faulkner, who, since leaving her venture capital job in Silicon Valley to turn professional in 2020, has had stage wins in some of the world’s most prestigious races, including the women’s versions of the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta Espana, and Tour de Suisse.
“It’s not always easy to ride my bike in Homer. They don’t have bike lanes as much as I would like. So, it’s difficult to do training there. Also, my races are in Europe throughout the season. And the snow in the winter obviously is a big obstacle. So, when I could train indoors from anywhere in the world, I said: ‘I want it to be Homer Alaska.’ That’s where my family is. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. It reminds me of my childhood.”
Her next visit will be in December, for the holidays. And when she arrives, she expects it will be with a suitcase that’s a little heavier than usual, because she’ll be bringing a couple of gold medals along with her.
“I will probably show them to some hometown heroes of mine and some teachers, and a lot of the people who have supported me from a very young age,” she said.
She already has had a chance to show them off to her siblings, boyfriend, and a few close friends who have been with her in Paris the past couple of weeks. Of course, her parents are here too. It has been a rare summertime trip out of the state for them.
“It’s hard, because the summer is their busy season, and normally they need to be there full-time,” she explained. “They decided to take a big break from managing the lodge to come over and watch me in the Olympics. But they have some really good staff there managing it while they’re gone, so it’ll still be there when they get back. Just for now, I think they’re enjoying their time with me and with the family over here.”
She added that she is “super appreciative” to have those she is closest to here to share in her Olympic experience
“Having them support me in person is incredible. But, you know, as important as that is, is all the people who supported me from home and from afar,” said Faulkner, who was a student at Homer Junior High School. “There were so many people who sent me photos of them cheering for me and wearing ‘Go Kristen’ t-shirts. They sent me videos of when they were watching me win. I have just felt so loved and so supported this whole Olympics, by people from all walks of my life. And to have my hometown cheer me on, for me, was just so special.”
Most of those messages were sent after she won the road race, so she only saw them after she won the team pursuit, because she mostly kept her phone off while trying to focus solely on competing.
“But there were a few people who are really important to me who I wanted to keep in touch with,” she noted. “My parents obviously, and my really close inner circle. I looked at my phone between races for messages from them. Those are the people who have seen me in my crashes. They were there for me during the hard times. I wanted to feel them right there with me during the competition.”
As soon as the team pursuit ended, she switched into family-time mode. She spent Wednesday night sleeping at the place her parents are renting. She had breakfast with them Thursday morning, then swam in the pool with a niece and nephew and showed them her medals, and hung out with her boyfriend, before starting a long afternoon and evening of media and publicity appearances.
And that’s about all the time Faulkner will have to bask in the glory of her victories and soak up the Olympic experience. She will be competing next week in the Tour de France Femmes, and needs to immediately turn her attention to that.
“I definitely got the quality family time I needed today, and I think the next two or three days, it’s more focused on personal recovery and decompressing and relaxing. I do wish I had more time to go see the other events and other Olympians competing, but unfortunately, I don’t. I have to just prioritize rest and recovery before the Tour de France.”
She also realizes that when she arrives there to compete with her Liv Jayco AlUla team colleagues, it is going to be different than the races that came before the Olympics.
“I think there will be a lot more media on me than normal, more journalists and what not. But the team strategy will stay the same. I’m the same bike rider I was a month ago, at the end of the day. I have more medals to show, but my fitness is there, my form is there, and I’m going to be riding there for opportunities for myself, and I’m also going to be there to support my teammates, in the same way I would have before all of this. There’s going to be stages that suit my teammates way better than they suit me. And I’m really excited to be there for them. And you know, I think it’s also meaningful for them, to see an Olympic champion support them to go for a win.”
Ed Klajman is a Canadian freelance sportswriter. He is reporting from Paris for Anchorage Daily News as well as other news organizations.
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 06:47:00
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