Alaska’s Kristen Faulkner lands spot on U.S. Olympic track cycling team

Alaska’s Kristen Faulkner on Thursday was named to Team USA’s track cycling team for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Faulkner, who is from Homer, will join Jennifer Valente, Chloé Dygert, Lily Williams and Olivia Cummins.

The 31-year-old has said in previous interviews that she was inspired to make becoming an Olympian a lifelong goal after watching the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

“I dreamed of competing in the Olympics ever since I was 8 years old, and I saw it on TV,” Faulkner said in a statement from USA Cycling. “This is the biggest dream I’ve ever had, and it’s finally come true! I am beyond excited to represent the USA alongside such a strong group of athletes. I will do my best to bring home a medal for Team USA!”

Faulkner has spent much of her career as a cyclist road racing. She began biking competitively in 2020 and quickly rose through the ranks in international competitions.

She has Grand Tour stage wins over the past two years. Faulkner’s most recent Tour win came this spring when she won a stage at the Vuelta Femenina in Spain.

Last month she won a national championship road race in West Virginia after finishing second in a time trial race that would have given her a spot on Team USA’s road racing Olympic team.

[Previously: Cyclist from Homer to compete in Tour de France Femmes]

She has only recently started training as a track racer. Faulkner was invited by USA Cycling to the Colorado Springs Velodrome last year to evaluate her potential for the Team Pursuit program. She raced at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Adelaide as a part of Team USA in the Team Pursuit.

The races are contested on a banked oval track inside a velodrome. As opposed to road bikes, the track racing bikes are fixed gear and don’t have brakes.

The Olympic track cycling competition will be held Aug. 5-11 at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. The full television schedule is available on NBC’s Olympics site.

“We certainly have an incredible team this year heading to Paris,” USA Cycling’s Women’s Track endurance coach Gary Sutton said in a statement. “The team has shown a lot of progress since the 2023 World Championships. After recently returning from an exceptionally successful training camp in Zolder, the ladies have shown remarkable performance improvements and are poised to be highly competitive in Paris.”