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Velo 2024 Olympics

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KRISTEN FAULKNER WON AMERICA’S FIRST ROAD GOLD IN 40 YEARS, AND SHE WASN’T EVEN
SUPPOSED TO RACE


TRIATHLETE TAYLOR KNIBB GAVE UP HER SPOT ON THE TWO-RIDER OLYMPIC SQUAD TO GOLD
MEDALIST FAULKNER: 'IT WAS AS EASY DECISION TO MAKE.'

Published Aug 4, 2024

Andrew Hood
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Photo: DDAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images

Faulkner wasn't even supposed to start the road race. Photo: DDAVID GRAY/AFP via
Getty Images

Don't miss a moment of the 2024 Tour de France! Get recaps, insights, and
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PARIS (Velo) — Kristen Faulkner wasn’t even qualified to race the Olympic Games,
but behind-the-scenes wrangling opened the door to start Sunday to deliver
America’s first road racing gold medal in 40 years.

A decision weeks ago to replace triathlete Taylor Knibb with Faulkner on the
two-rider U.S. team put her on the start line Sunday and set into motion the
dynamics to win the gold medal.

In a spectacular race Sunday, Faulkner marked favorites and then pounced late to
solo to America’s first gold medal since Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Alexi
Grewal both won gold in road racing in Los Angeles 1984.

Knibb, who is racing in mixed triathlon late in this Olympic Games, didn’t race
Sunday after giving up her spot to the eventual gold medalist.

“It was an easy decision to make. She’s never raced on the road before, and we
talked about the pros and cons of it,” USA Cycling’s head of performance Jim
Miller told Velo.

“They have a triathlon team relay the day after the road race, so I talked to
their team, and I said if I was in your shoes, I would probably want her not to
race this because you can win a medal in the triathlon relay.”

The triathlete punched her ticket for the Paris Olympics after beating Faulkner
by 11 seconds in the U.S. national time trial race in May, which earned her a
spot in both the road race and time trial in Paris.





While a solid performer on the cycling legs in triathlon, Knibb has no
experience racing in the bunch, and everyone decided the best thing to do was to
allow the more experienced Faulkner start the women’s race.

Knibb, who crashed three times during a wet and treacherous time trial race to
open the Olympic Games, opted not to race the road race.

Everyone agreed, and Knibb offered up her spot to Faulkner.

The replacement was made even easier with Faulkner confirming her chops on the
road with some big wins in 2024, not to mention that she was already part of the
women’s team pursuit squad on the track.



“Taylor agreed, so it was a mutual decision and an easy conversation,” Miller
said. “With Kristen, we know we have a very strong card to play in the road
race.”

Faulkner, however, said she wasn’t convinced that she wanted to take the spot on
the road race because she’s also a key member of the four-rider team pursuit
team in track racing this week.

“I almost didn’t race the road race, and I had to ask myself if I would be
capable of racing the road race and be ready for the team pursuit. We want to
medal, that’s why we’re here,” Faulkner said.

She discussed it with her coaches and decided it was worth the risk, and she
even simulated the 72-hour window from the road race to the team pursuit
qualifying during her preparation for the Games.

“I decided I would only do the road race if I was confident I could medal,” she
said. “I even decided if I was dropped I would pull out to prepare for team
pursuit, and I would only continue in the race if I believed I could medal.”

That decision proved right on target, as Faulkner attacked up the first assault
of the Montmartre climb Sunday to ride into the leading medal group.

She linked up with the leading duo with 4km to go, and didn’t even blink.

Faulkner then attacked while the others looked on, and she rode away with gold.


Andrew Hood
Andrew Hood, aka “EuroHoody,” is the European editor for Velo. Since joining the
title in 2002, he’s been chasing bike races all over the world. He’s covered
dozens editions of the spring classics and the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia,
and Vuelta a España, as well as numerous world championships in road, track, and
mountain biking. He’s also covered five Olympic Games and traveled across six
continents for bike races. Beyond the Outside cycling network, his work has
appeared in…


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 * Chloe Dygert
 * Kristen Faulkner
 * Olympic Games
 * Taylor Knibb
 * USA Cycling


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