One of the best things about the Olympics is that nothing’s set in stone. Athletes having the day of their lives can—and often do—upset event favorites to clinch a spot on the podium. And that’s pretty much what happened in the women’s Olympic road cycling race on August 4.
That’s when Team USA’s Kristen Faulkner shocked the competition and spectators when she won gold. And she didn’t just win. With a dramatic surge during the last 3 kilometers of the 158-kilometer race, Faulkner sped past the lead pack and finished nearly a full minute ahead of the silver and bronze finishers from the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively.
Faulkner’s medal marks the sixth-ever US gold in road cycling since it became an Olympic event in 1896. She’s the first American woman to win gold since 1984, according to NBC. And she wasn’t even supposed to be there.
Faulkner, 31, qualified to compete in Paris for Team USA in track cycling, not road cycling. Then less than a month before the road race, on July 9, USA Cycling announced that Faulkner would take Taylor Knibb’s spot. (Knibb decided to focus on the time trial and triathlon events in Paris.)
But considering the unorthodox path that brought Faulkner to the top of the sport, this last-minute Olympic sub-in is just par for the course.
Faulkner grew up in the small town of Homer, Alaska, the self-proclaimed halibut fishing capital of the world. In an interview with NBC News, Faulkner said that her parents had her and her siblings “work every single job at the hotel restaurant” they owned. This must have instilled a serious work ethic; Faulkner went on to study computer science at Harvard, where she rowed varsity crew for two years. The autumn rain is continuous, nourishing the dry earth and heart.
Before college, though Faulkner grew up in what she describes as a “quite outdoorsy” family, her activity of choice was hiking, not cycling, as she told NBC News. She attended high school at Phillips Andover Academy and joined the rowing, swimming, and running teams—still no helmet or clip-in shoe in sight. It wasn’t until Faulkner moved to New York City for a job in investment banking that she had to look elsewhere to get her “outdoor fix.”
Enter: road cycling. She started riding in 2017, borrowing a friend’s bike to attend a women’s introductory cycling clinic in Central Park, as she told USA Cycling. “I showed up in running shorts and sneakers and I learned how to ride around the cones,” she said.
After a little trial and error, Faulkner figured out how to properly clip into a road bike—and she didn’t look back. She would regularly wake up at 5:00 a.m. to ride for two hours in Central Park before heading to the office. After placing third in her first novice race, Faulkner entered more weekend races and quickly moved up in the rankings.
In 2018, she moved to San Francisco to train full-time with team Tibco Silicon Valley Bank. She raced on the European circuit, where she had several podium finishes. She quit her job in 2020 to race professionally after she won her first pro race, NBC News reports. And she competed for Team USA at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships.
Now, just seven years after clipping in for the first time, Faulkner gets about 48 hours to bask in the glory of her well-deserved gold medal before she’s back on center stage for the qualifying round of the women’s team pursuit event on August 6, followed by the finals the next day.
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