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A top student from Harvard's computer science department won two gold medals in his first Olympic Games!

The individual event was the first gold medal for the United States in 40 years.

31-year-old road cyclistChristine Faulkner(Kristen Faulkner) has unexpectedly become popular recently.

She graduated from Harvard University with a major in computer science and worked as a VC on Wall Street in Silicon Valley for four years. At the age of 24, she started to take up cycling as a personal hobby because of participating in club activities.

Unexpectedly, 7 years later, she was "appointed" as a substitute and unexpectedly became the biggest dark horse, winning theRoad Cycling - Women's Road Racegold medal.

In a post-race interview, she revealed that even she herself was only sure that "I can win" when she was only 500 meters away from the finish line.

Three days later, sheTrack Cycling - Women's Team PursuitShe won the gold medal and became the first female athlete in American history to win gold medals in two different events in the same Olympic Games.

Netizens said, "The facts have proved that the bodies of top students are different from those of ordinary people, but it is only reflected in the brain before activation."

Many foreign netizens excitedly called her "Wonder Woman" and the hero of Alaska.

From a Harvard scholar, a workplace elite to a world champion, how did Christine Faulkner make the crossover?

Childhood Olympic dream finally realized at 31

Faulkner was born in Alaska, USA in 1992.

Since childhood, Faulkner's way of entertainment was different from that of other children.

The family often organized outdoor activities, such as long hikes in the rugged wilderness that could last for several days, sometimes even "walking" with bears.

In high school, Faulkner attended Phillips Academy, where he developed well-rounded morally, intellectually and physically, and was a runner, swimmer and rower on the school team.

She was then admitted to Harvard University's computer science program and joined the Harvard rowing team. While attending a web development training camp, she also took part in competitions of all sizes.

And Faulkner is still an "MVP player" and is stillHarvard Lightweight Women's 2km Rowing Machine（ergometer）Fastest record holder。

These early experiences gave Faulkner a greater resilience than the average person, which was also necessary for her later riding.

In 2016, Faulkner graduatedBecome a workplace elite, joined Bessemer Venture Partners, a veteran American venture capital firm.

In 2017, while attending a bicycle club event in New York's Central Park outside of work, Faulkner came into contact with and quickly became fascinated with cycling.

In a later interview she revealed that biking was mostly outdoors, which reminded her of her life in Alaska.

With his extraordinary athletic talent, Faulkner soon began to participate in bicycle competitions in New York.

In 2018, Faulkner switched to Threshold Ventures, but his love for cycling has only grown.

Faulkner started riding late and had some shortcomings in her skills. In order to improve quickly, she focused on making herself"T" typeDevelopment means focusing all your energy on the areas you are best at, reducing group riding to learn positioning, cadence interval training and other comprehensive technical improvements.

If you don't perform well in crisscross races, then choose long-distance climbing races. Forkner describes himself like this:A very professional rider, but not a well-rounded rider。

In 2020, she began racing for TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank, the oldest professional women’s cycling team in North America at the time.

afterSuccessful transition to professional cycling。

Her work experience taught Faulkner how to calculate and assess risks, and also influenced her performance on the court:

During the game, I will have this mentality:What is the risk-reward ratio?Know when to go all out.

In the constant competition, Faulkner found what he really loved and remembered his childhood dream:Participate in the Olympics.

At the beginning of 2021, she made up her mind to quit her job and devote herself to cycling full-time.

Soon we harvested a basket of results:

△Source: Wikipedia

The thrilling thing is that last year, Faulkner was in a car accident during training and broke his tibia, almost missing the Paris Olympics. Fortunately, after resting for 3 months, Faulkner recovered well and started riding again.

In May this year, she won the road race championship and the time trial runner-up at the US National Road Cycling Championships, and was then selected to participate in the women's track cycling team pursuit event at this Olympics in June.

In early July, Faulkner was informed of another big news: her teammate Taylor Knibb needed to focus on time trials and triathlons, resulting in a vacancy in the women's road race, so she would be a substitute.

What no one expected was that Faulkner became the biggest dark horse and won the gold medal in one fell swoop.

This race was very exciting. Faulkner seized the opportunity to attack in the last 3 kilometers or so, and finally won the game with58 seconds ahead of the pursuersI crossed the finish line with a score of and arrived at the finish line in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The last time the U.S. team won gold was in 1984, when the women's road race was first introduced at the Olympics.

Later, in the women's track cycling team pursuit, Faulkner's American team won the championship again. Faulkner also became the first American athlete in history.The first person to play in the same Olympic GamesAmerican female athletes who won gold medals in these two different events.

Former employer Bessemer Venture Partners also sent congratulations after Faulkner won the championship.

Although it is rare for a scholar like Faulkner to win a gold medal across disciplines, you can't say...

Cycling road race, two consecutive cross-border champions

Just at the last Tokyo Olympics, in the cycling road race, there was also a big upset.

Anna Kissenhofer, postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Mathematics, Austria (Anna Kiesenhofer), 75 seconds ahead of the Dutch three-time world champion Van Vleuten, won the gold medal.

Even at that time, Van Vleuten did not expect Anna to be in front of him. After crossing the finish line, she raised her hands and cheered, and for a moment she thought she had won.

Without a professional team or a coach, Kissenhof amazed everyone that year.

Cycling is also a pure hobby for her. Kissenhofer majored in mathematics for her undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, and graduated from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia respectively.

Before the competition, she was working at the world-renowned École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, teaching partial differential equations.

It’s true~ If you learn math, physics and chemistry well, you won’t be afraid to travel around the world.

Kissenhof also participated in the Paris Olympics, but on another track - the women's individual time trial on road cycling.

In the pre-match interview, Kissenhoff said he was not obsessed with the championship unless "everyone forgets who I am."

In the end, she ranked 33rd with a time of 46 minutes 28.88 seconds, bringing her first Olympic individual time trial stage to an end.

One More Thing

Back to Faulkner, after the Olympics, he went straight to participate in the WWT Tour de France, which lasted from August 12 to August 18.

Faulkner's current team, EF Education-Tibco-SVB, has prepared a specially designed road bike for her, which she has named "Wonder Woman."

Two Wonder Women meet us again on the screen.

Reference Links:
[1] https://www.kristenfaulkner.com/life-story
[2]https://usacycling.org/athlete/kristen-faulkner
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Faulkner