Jennifer Valente wins Olympic omnium gold in U.S. cycling's most successful Summer Games in decades
Jennifer Valente rolled around the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines one last time with the American flag held aloft Sunday, a dominant defense of her Olympic omnium title giving her a second gold medal in a span of four days.
The Stars and Stripes flew often after cycling events at the Paris Games.
The Americans won three gold medals and six in all for their best showing at the Olympics in four decades, and Valente capped everything off in style. The 29-year-old from San Diego finished with 144 points in the final event of the cycling program, well ahead of Daria Pikulik of Poland and Ally Wollaston of New Zealand, who rounded out the omnium podium.
"It's been a really long week of racing," Valente said. "I raced (team pursuit) qualifying over a week ago, and we had some really good performances, so to pull it off on the last day, I'm really excited."
Kristen Faulkner also captured two gold medals in Paris, winning the Olympic road race and joining Valente and teammatesLily Williams and Chloe Dygert in winning the team pursuit. The three gold medals and six total won by the Americans are their most since the team won four gold medals and nine total at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Earlier in the final session of cycling, Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands won his third gold medal of the Paris Games by holding off Australians Matthew Glaetzer and Matthew Richardson in the finals of the men's keirin, and Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand captured her second gold and third medal overall by sweeping Lea Friedrich of Germany in the sprint finals.
The session began with the scratch race, the first event in the omnium, where riders try to cover 30 laps as quickly as possible. And just as Valente did at the Tokyo Games, she played the cat-and-mouse game perfectly to secure maximum points.
Just as the peloton was hitting the bell lap, two of her biggest threats — Lotte Kopecky of Belgium and Neah Evans of Britain — touched wheels. Kopecky wound up 17th, possibly costing her a medal in the end, while Evans hit the deck and finished last.
In the tempo race, where a point is awarded to the leader of each of the final 25 laps, Valente was joined by Pikulik and Georgia Baker of Australia in an early attack, and they worked together to share the 21 remaining sprint points.
In the elimination race, where one rider is taken from the field every two laps, Valente continued to dictate the way it would all play out. On the final lap, she nudged ahead of Baker to once again earn maximum points.
That gave Valente a 10-point lead entering the points race, where the top four riders in sprints every 10 laps get points. Riders also can earn a 20-point bonus by taking a lap on the field, though, and that is what the American did with 36 laps to go.
Valente was so far ahead that she merely had to avoid any catastrophes to stand atop another Olympic podium.
"I definitely went into a points race looking at the couple of people that were trailing me and the points gap," she said. "I was pretty happy to let some other people take points and trying to kind of just let the race evolve."
In the keirin, world champion Kevin Quintero of Colombia and two-time world silver medalist Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands were eliminated in the same quarterfinal, where only the first four in the six-rider field advanced to the semis.
The finale was marred by a heavy crash just as Lavreysen hit the front stretch, Kaiya Ota of Japan swerved up the track and collided with Jack Carlin. The British rider went down hard and slid to a stop on the bottom of the track, where he lay motionless for a moment while medics rushed to check on him. Carlin eventually stood up and was able to walk off the track.
Lavreysen won the sprint and team sprint gold medals earlier in the week, and then he finished the job after coming up just short of the trifecta at the Tokyo Games. He won gold in both sprint events there but had to settle for bronze in the keirin.
"I felt really strong the full week," Lavreysen said. "This morning, I thought, 'It is possible' — but I needed to ride the perfect final, and I was really close."
Richardson took the keirin silver medal to go with silver in the sprint and bronze in the team sprint, while Glaetzer earned his second bronze medal of the Paris Games after also competing for Australia in the team sprint.
Andrews, whose father, Jon, competed at the 1992 Barcelona Games, rode brilliantly in her best-of-three sprint final. The 24-year-old from Christchurch won the opening race from the lead, holding off Friedrich all the way to the line, and then roared around the outside and past her German rival in the second race to capture the gold medal.
Andrews also won the keirin and teamed with Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton to win silver in the team sprint.
"I've been sprinting since I was 19. I've been riding a track bike since I was 13, 14 years old," Andrews said. "It's been a 10-year dream to be here and not one that I always thought was possible."
In the race for sprint bronze, Emma Finucane of Britain swept Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw, winning both of their races from the front. It was the second medal for the 21-year-old from Wales after her bronze in the keirin.
"I would have loved to win gold, but that bronze medal means everything to me," Finucane said. "For the last two races, I gave everything. I have nothing else to give."