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August 11 2024
Jennifer Valente: On Sunday, Jennifer Valente delivered an incredible performance, winning her second gold medal of the week in the Olympic women’s omnium. Her victory brought the U.S. within just one gold medal of China at the Paris Olympics, making this the most successful Summer Games for the U.S. cycling team in 40 years.
Jennifer Valente scored 144 points in the multidiscipline event, well ahead of Poland's Daria Pikulik, who had 131 points. New Zealand's Ellie Wollaston won bronze, overtaking Belgium's Lotte Kopecky at the end of the 80-lap closing points race.
Valente helped the Americans win gold in the team pursuit earlier in the week along with Kristen Faulkner, who also won two gold medals to follow up her road race win. Overall, the U.S. team won three gold medals and six medals in cycling events, their best performance since the team won four golds and nine medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Earlier in cycling's final session, Harrie Lavryksen won his third gold medal of the Paris Games by beating Australia's Matthew Glaetzer and Matthew Richardson in the men's keirin final, and New Zealand's Elise Andrews won her second gold and third medal overall by beating Germany's Lea Friedrich in the sprint final.
The session began with the scratch race, the first event in the Omnium, in which riders try to cover 30 laps as fast as possible. Just like Valente did at the Tokyo Games, he mastered the cat-and-mouse strategy to rack up the highest points.
As the peloton approached the bell lap, its two biggest threats - Kopecky and Britain's Neah Evans - touched wheels. Kopecky ended in 17th place, which might have cost her a medal, and Evans fell and finished in last.
In the tempo race, where the leader of each of the final 25 laps is awarded a point, Valente was joined by Australia's Pikulic and Georgia Baker in the early attack, and together they shared the 21 remaining sprint points.
The top three riders entering the elimination race, where a rider is eliminated from the field every two laps, were also the last three on track. Valente again got ahead and earned maximum points by holding off Baker at the finish.
This gave Valente a 10-point lead entering the points race, where the top four riders in sprints every 10 laps earn points. Riders can also earn a 20-point bonus by leading the field by a lap, and that's what the American did with 36 laps remaining.
Valente was so far ahead that he simply had to avoid any disaster to stand on another Olympic podium.
In the keirin, world champion Kevin Quintero of Colombia and two-time world silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands exited in the same quarterfinal, where only the first four in a field of six riders advanced to the semifinals.
While the favorites made it safely to the final, Britain's Hamish Turnbull and Germany's Luca Spiegl crashed badly at the end of their semi-final. Medics cared for both for several minutes, though each of them managed to get off the track.
This wasn't their last crash of the competition.
As Lavreysen hit the front stretch of the final, Japan's Kaiya Ota veered off the track and collided with Jack Carlin behind him. The British rider fell down badly and stopped at the bottom of the track, where he lay motionless for a moment while medics rushed to attend to him. Carlin eventually stood up and was able to get off the track.
Lavreysen won gold medals in the sprint and team sprint earlier in the week, and then completed the job at the Tokyo Games, falling just short of the trifecta. He took gold in both sprint events, but had to settle for a bronze in the keirin.
Richardson took silver on Sunday with a silver in the sprint and a bronze in the team sprint, while Glaetzer won her second bronze medal of the Paris Games after competing for Australia in the team sprint.
"I've been sprinting since I was 19. I've been riding track bikes since I was 13, 14," Andrews said. "It's been a 10-year dream of mine to come here and one I never thought was possible."
Andrews, whose father John competed at the 1992 Barcelona Games, put in a stunning performance in her best-of-three sprint final. The 24-year-old from Christchurch won the opening race from the lead, held off Friedrich to the line and then overtook her German rival in the second race to win gold.
Andrews also won the keirin and teamed up with Rebecca Petch and Shanae Fulton to take silver in the team sprint.
In the sprint bronze race, Britain's Emma Finucane won after leading in both races, ahead of Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw. It was the second medal for the 21-year-old rider from Wales after winning bronze in the keirin.
"I really wanted the gold, but this bronze medal means the world to me," Finucane shared. "In the last two races I gave my all. I have nothing more to give."
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