PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 04: Gold medalist Kristen Faulkner of Team United States poses on the podium … [+] during the Women’s Road Race on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Trocadero on August 04, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
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Faulkner made Team USA only as a replacement, then proceeded to win a gold medal beating a biking legend by 59 seconds in a 158-kilometer road race, and breaking a 40-year gold-medal drought for US women. Shocking? Not to her.
Alaska: Where It All Started
Kristen Faulkner was born December 18, 1992 in Homer, Alaska, a small fishing village, and the halibut fishing capital of the world. Her parents still live in Alaska along with her four siblings.
Faulkner eventually left Alaska in 2008 to attend Phillips Academy a prep boarding school in Boston Massachusetts. At Phillips she excelled in rowing, while also competing at the varsity level for 4 years in swimming and distance running for the school. She somehow also found time to be an honor roll student as well.
Andover, Massachusetts, USA – June 28, 2019: Samuel Phillips Hall is a well-known landmark at … [+] historic Phillips Academy that was found in the 1700s.
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On to Harvard
Upon graduation from Phillips, Faulkner would enter Harvard in 2012 where she rowed as a lightweight oarswoman on the crew team (rowing has two weight classes–lightweight and heavyweight) while pursuing a degree in computer science. While Faulkner only rowed for two years at Harvard she holds the distinction of rowing the fastest 2,000-meter ergometer race ever for a lightweight rower at a school with 180 years of rowing history.
Cambridge, MA – January 24: Gated entrance on the campus of Harvard University. (Photo by Suzanne … [+] Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Boston Globe via Getty Images
The Wheel of Pain
The Ergometer (Erg) rowing machine is a piece of standard equipment used in college rowing programs for decades. Most Erg Machines operate off of a flywheel resistance design. Hence long ago rowers would nickname the Erg the “wheel of pain.”
henley, uk july 5, 2001 rowers training and warming up in the ergometer room. (Photo by Art … [+] SEITZ/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Rowing machine competitions began as a sport globally in the 1980’s. A standard ergometer test would be a 2,000-meter distance and is somewhere around six minutes in duration. How bad can a six-minute race be? It is a grueling experience using 85% of both upper and lower-body muscle groups. It not only tests how well you can breathe and maintain a high heart rate, but it’s long enough to test you mentally to push through the pain of burning lactic acid build-up. Put simply: This race is a “whole-body burn.” And Faulkner was one of the best ever at it.
Learning to Bike
Faulkner would graduate from Harvard in 2016 and go to work in New York for a venture capital firm. In 2017 she attended an introductory clinic for women’s cycling and by 2020 she was racing professionally. In 2021, she quit her job to be a full-time professional cyclist. There is a pattern emerging here. Clearly Faulkner is an athlete with a “big motor.” She has talent. She is able to sustain maximum output for an extended period of time.
But like many Olympic champions she also possesses resilience. The ability to persevere through obstacles. As Faulkner herself would say:
“I’ve had a concussion. I’ve been hit by a car. Every time, I’ve never lost my passion to keep going. It’s never a matter of if I’ll keep going, it’s a matter of how.”
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 04: Kristen Faulkner of Team United States leads the peloton during the … [+] Women’s Road Race on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Trocadero on August 04, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
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Talent and resilience would enable Faulkner to make an incredibly fast rise to the top of women’s cycling. Commitment was also required.
All In
When Faulkner left venture capital to be a professional cyclist it was a risk. Ironically she would say her wall street job prepared her to make the jump. She was interviewing entrepreneurs everyday launching start-up companies. These were passionate people with big ideas taking risks. They were committed.
“If a venture capitalist thinks there’s a 50% chance the company is going to be successful, that doesn’t mean they go 50% all-in for the company. When you invest, assess the risk and make your decision, but then you go all-in. You don’t look back. You have to commit. I think that’s something that shaped me.”
Luck: Where Preparation Meets Opportunity
Less than a month before the Paris Olympics USA cycling announced that professional triathlete Taylor Knibb had resigned her position in the Olympic Road Race to focus on the time trial and Triathlon events at the Games instead. Knibb had won the 2024 USA Cycling Time Trial National Championships, automatically qualifying her for the last spot in the Time Trial and Road Race.
PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 31: Taylor Knibb of Team United States reacts after competing in the Women’s … [+] Individual Triathlon on day five of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Pont Alexandre III on July 31, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
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Team USA had qualified for two spots in the Road Race. The other spot had been awarded to Chloe Dygert after winning the 2023 UCI Time Trial World Championship. At the last minute then the decision was made to select Kristen Faulkner to join Dygert.
Faulkner was ready to seize the opportunity. Faulkner would also ride in the Team Time Trial Pursuit
The Paris Road Race
August 4th was the day of the race. The course was 158 kilometers long (98 miles) with over 5,577 feet of climbing. It was a warm day. Faulkner knew exactly how she was going to ride the race.
“I was quite excited. But, USA Cycling tried to convince me not to do the road race because they were worried it would impact our chances in the Team Pursuit. They sat me down and said they didn’t want me to do the race. I said I thought I could do well, and they told me that their simulations showed I had a six percent chance of medaling. I told them, “Fatigue resistance is my superpower. That’s why I’m good at races. I’ll recover fine for Team Pursuit. I think this course suits me. I think I’m capable.”
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 04: (L-R) Lotte Kopecky of Team Belgium and Kristen Faulkner of Team United … [+] States compete in the breakaway during the Women’s Road Race on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Trocadero on August 04, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
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Faulkner knew she would hit the first of nine climbs at a pretty hard pace to thin out the field. She and a handful of riders began to separate. The peloton would stay relatively controlled until the final laps when a crash caused some disruption. This lead to the formation of a leading group made up of Marianne Vos of the Netherlands. Vos is arguably one of the most decorated riders (male or female) of all time having won world championships in road and track cycling in a career spanning twenty years.
WAREGEM, BELGIUM – MARCH 27: Marianne Vos of The Netherlands and Team Visma-Lease a Bike celebrates … [+] at finish line as race winner ahead of Shirin van Anrooij of The Netherlands and Team Lidl – Trek (L) during the 12nd Dwars door Vlaanderen 2024, Women’s Elite a 129.9km one day race from Waregem to Waregem on March 27, 2024 in Waregem, Belgium. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
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Vos and Hungarian Champion Blanka Vas were leading with less than 10 kilometers to go. Faulkner and Belgian rider Lotte Kopecky were about twenty seconds back. Everyone at this point is tired. As the riders begin their final ascent of the Monmarte summit Faulkner uses ferocious acceleration to close the gap with the leaders, with Kopecky hanging onto her rear wheel. Finally she catches Vos and Vas just 3.5 kilometers from the finish line.
Faulkner had to burn up huge amounts of energy to bridge up to the leaders, yet she immediately proceeds to mount a solo attack thereafter. No one responds. And Kristen Faulkner crosses the finish line at the Eiffel Tower astonishingly 59 seconds ahead of Vos and everyone else.
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 04: Gold medalist Kristen Faulkner of Team United States (C), Silver medalist … [+] Marianne Vos of Team Netherlands (L) and Bronze medalist Lotte Kopecky of Team Belgium (R) pose on the podium with the Eiffel Tower in the background during the Women’s Road Race on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Trocadero on August 04, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
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Publish date : 2024-09-01 02:05:00
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