The United States just won its first Olympic gold in the women's team pursuit cycling event. It's the second gold medal of the Paris Olympics for Kristen Faulkner, who didn't even initially qualify for the Olympics.
The U.S. beat New Zealand around the velodrome (that's cycling speak for a banked indoor track) in the gold medal match, putting up a final time of 4 minutes, 4 seconds over the race's 4 kilometers.
Great Britain took bronze in the third-place match.
Faulkner has been one of the surprise stories of the Paris Olympics. The Harvard grad didn't even qualify for the Olympics, but was tapped by USA Cycling less than a month ago to fill in for another athlete, Taylor Knibb, who wanted to focus on the triathlon.
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On Sunday, Faulkner took gold in the road cycling race through Paris, becoming the first American to win a road race medal in 40 years.
The U.S. had medaled in the women's team pursuit at each Olympics since the event debuted at the 2012 London Games, but had never won gold.
Cycling was not Faulkner's first sport, though people know knew her growing up in Massachusetts — where she also went to high school — aren't surprised to see her success.
The 31-year-old was a rower throughout high school at Phillips Academy and college at Harvard University. Faulkner picked up cycling as a hobby while living in New York in 2017. She didn't go pro until a few years ago, and didn't even qualify for the Olympics until Team USA needed a replacement.
On Sunday, she finished 58 seconds ahead of one of the greatest female cyclists of all time.
"Any challenge — no matter how scary or daunting — was like, that was her jam," former Phillips Academy crew coach Kathryn Green told NBC10 Boston after Sunday's big win. "It was obvious she was destined to do great things in cycling — just like in rowing."
Faulkner was in the first boat all four years at Phillips Academy in Andover — a rare feat for a freshman, according to Green.
Another former rower at Harvard remembers her as the strongest and fastest person on the team.
"When she first joined the team, I was definitely a bit starstruck," former Harvard rowing teammate Julia Baumel said. "One minute, she'd be on the rowing machine, putting up an insane time, and the next, she'd be smiling and laughing and congratulating anyone who got a personal best."
Paul Murphy, Faulkner's former swim coach at Phillips Academy, just returned from wishing her luck in Paris.
"She seemed really just happy and ready to go, and talking about how much she loved her sport and her team and the training, and you know, I knew she was a great athlete," Murphy said. "Tears are, like, running down my face because it's just this hugely emotional experience, where this person you know, this incredible human being, is out there doing great things."
