Homer’s Kristen Faulkner nabbed her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, joining with three other United States riders to take first place in Women’s Team Pursuit at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome.
Faulkner also won gold in the women’s road race Sunday.
“I’m still pinching myself,” Faulkner said in audio provided by USA Cycling. “It still doesn’t feel real. To be honest, I think I’ll wake up in a week and it still won’t feel real.
“It’s going to take a long time for this to sink in.”
Faulkner grew up in Homer and went to Massachusetts to attend high school. She went on to graduate from Harvard in 2016 and worked in venture capital.
In 2017, she attended a clinic on cycling and eventually decided to pursue the sport full-time.
“My goal was to make the Olympics,” Faulkner said in the provided audio. “My goal was to take home a medal. Now I’ve taken home two golds.
“It’s way more than I ever expected or even dreamed of. I think we’ve just got to keep dreaming of bigger and bigger things, and hopefully there is more to come.”
According to the Alaska Sports Report, Faulkner is the only Alaskan to ever win two gold medals and one of three Alaskans to leave the same Games with multiple medals.
The other two are Tommy Moe and Seward’s Lydia Jacoby, who won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke and silver in the 400 mixed medley relay in 2021.
Faulkner said her meteoric rise in cycling says a lot about those around her.
“I think it says a lot about the coaches we have and the team we have around us,” she said in provided audio. “I have learned a lot in the past year from my teammates.
“I don’t think my improvement came from me; it came from the people around me. I hope there’s more to come from this team as well.”
Tuesday, the United States team of Faulkner, Jennifer Valente, Chloe Dygert and Lily Williams qualified second.
That meant they had to defeat Great Britain in Wednesday’s First Round.
The two countries have earned medals in every Team Pursuit since the event became a part of the Olympics in 2012.
Great Britain had won two golds and a silver, and Wednesday claimed bronze. The US had two silvers and a bronze, and Wednesday claimed its first gold.
Against Britain, United States covered 4 kilometers in 4 minutes, 4.629 seconds, to win by just .29 seconds.
Against New Zealand, US went 4:04.306 to top the 4:04.927 of New Zealand.
