Kristen Faulkner

Kristen Faulkner
	Faulkner in 2024
Personal information
Full name	Kristen Faulkner
Nickname	"Faulks"
Born	December 18, 1992 (age 31); Homer, Alaska, U.S.
Height	5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Team information
Current team	EF–Oatly–Cannondale
Discipline	Road and Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time-trialist (Road); Team pursuit (Track)
Amateur teams
2017–2018	Century Road Club Association; Dave Jordan Racing
2019	JLVelo
2019	Revolution Racing p/b Jakroo
Professional teams
2020–2021	Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank
2022–2023	Team BikeExchange–Jayco
2024–	EF–Oatly–Cannondale
Major wins
	Road One-day races and Classics Olympic Games Road Race (2024) National Road Race Championships (2024) Track Team pursuit, Olympic Games (2024)
Medal record
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
Women's Road bicycle racing
Women's Track cycling
Pan American Games

Kristen Faulkner (born December 18, 1992)^[1] is an American racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's Continental Team EF–Oatly–Cannondale.^[4]^[5] She is the reigning USA National Road Race Champion^[6] and won two gold medals in the women's individual road race and women's track cycling team pursuit at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Faulkner is the first American woman, and third female Olympian, in history to win two gold medals in two different disciplines (in her case, road cycling and track cycling) in the same Olympic Games.^[7]

Early life and education

Faulkner was born in Homer, Alaska to parents Sara and Jon Faulkner, owners and operators of a resort in the city. She grew up in the Alaskan fishing community along with four siblings, Katie, Andrew, William, and Nicholas.^[8]^[9]

Kristen Faulkner graduated from Harvard^[10] in 2016 with a B.A in computer science, where she competed in varsity rowing.^[11] She holds the university's record for fastest 2k indoor rowing time for lightweight women. Before that, she attended Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, where she was an honor roll student and varsity runner, swimmer, and rower.

Career

Faulkner began competitive cycling in New York City in 2017 while she was working as an investment associate at Bessemer Venture Partners.^[8] She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2018 and joined Team Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank in 2020. During her first year cycling professionally, she worked full-time as an investment associate at Threshold Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. She won the women's road time trial at the 2023 Pan American Games.^[12] In October 2023, it was announced that Faulkner would join the UCI Women's Continental Team EF–Oatly–Cannondale for the 2024 season.^[13]

Faulkner had a strong start to the 2024 season with her new team. She won the Omloop van het Hageland and Stage 4 of La Vuelta Feminina. In May, she won the road race and finished second in the time trial at the United States National Road Race Championships. She was then selected to join Chloé Dygert in the road race and team pursuit at the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[14]^[15]

Faulkner, despite being a replacement on the 2024 Olympic team, was the first American to win a road racing gold medal in 40 years when she took first place in the women's road race. Faulkner finished the 158-kilometer race 58 seconds ahead of the silver and bronze medalists, who ended the race in a photo finish.^[16]

Faulkner also won the gold medal in women's team pursuit in track cycling alongside Chloé Dygert, Jennifer Valente, and Lily Williams. This was the first ever team track cycling gold medal in U.S. history. Faulkner became the first American woman and third female Olympian, after Leontien van Moorsel and Ester Ledecká, to win an Olympic gold medal in two different disciplines in the same Olympic Games.^[17]