SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Kristen Faulkner made history Wednesday in the final event of her first Olympics.

Faulkner became the first U.S. woman and third woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in multiple disciplines at the same Olympics as she helped the U.S. win its first cycling gold in team pursuit.

The U.S. beat New Zealand in the gold medal heat by about 4/10ths of a second. Great Britain beat Italy for the bronze.

On Sunday, Faulkner became the first U.S. woman to win gold in the road race in 40 years.

Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands (also in track and road cycling in 2000) and Esther Ledecká of Czechia (in Alpine skiing and snowboarding in 2018) are the only other women to win golds in more than one sport at the same Olympics.

“I'm still pinching myself,” Faulkner said. “This still doesn't feel real. … I think I'll wake up in a week and it still won't feel real, so it's going to take a long time for this to sink in, it really is. Originally my goal was to make the Olympics and then my goal was to take home a medal and I've taken home two golds now, so it's way more than I ever expected or even dreamed of. And I think we just got to keep dreaming on bigger and bigger things and hopefully there's more to come because the dreams don’t stop here.”

Faulkner, a competitive rower in college, picked up cycling in 2017 and quit her career in venture capital to pursue the sport full time four years ago.

She has limited cycling experience in track, but on Wednesday raced with a U.S. team that has long been one of the best in the world at team pursuit.

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The U.S. has won a medal in the event every year since it became an Olympic sport, winning silver in 2012 and 2016 and bronze in 2020. Great Britain also has won a medal every year, while New Zealand joined Canada and Germany as the only other countries to medal in the sport in the Olympics.

“I'm really happy for this medal, but I'm already looking towards the next thing,” Chloe Dygert said. “I'm going to cherish this, but it doesn't stop here and I'm going to keep going and a lot more to accomplish in the future.”

Dygert, who took bronze in the road cycling time trial last week, and Jennifer Valente also were part of the U.S.’s medal-winning pursuit teams in 2016 and 2020, and USA cycling coach Gary Sutton called the fourth member of the team that raced Wednesday, Valente, “the best starter in the world.”

“We made a decision to go down a little bit in gear to help (Kristen) a little bit, just (get) off the mark (because of her inexperience on the track), and I think it was a good choice,” Sutton said. “But look, Jen Valente led from the front and Jen's just got this, her timing. She's one of the – well, it's not one. She is the best team pursuer in the world along with Chloe and the rest of them, but she's got this feel of, if I say to her, ‘Do 22-second laps at the start,’ that's what she does. And she's ridden enough to know that. So I think that helped Kristen and just it was a special night, but I think we could see it coming, too.”

The U.S. led New Zealand after the first lap and never relinquished the lead, finishing in a time of 4:04.306, less than 1/10^th of a second off Germany’s world record (4:04.242) set at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Dygert shrugged off just missing the record.

“I haven’t seen a replay of (the finish),” she said. “I don’t exactly know what happened but at the end of the day a win is a win and that’s really all we wanted. Anything extra would have been great, but the gold medal’s what we aimed for today.”

And she said she was thrilled to send Sutton into retirement with a gold medal.

Sutton, 69 and a two-time Olympian as a racer, said Wednesday he is retiring after this season to return to his native Australia and spend more time with his family.

“Gary is the best ever,” Dygert said. “What a great way to end out his career. We have one more event with him, though. He’s going to come to world championships at the end of the season, so that’ll be his last big thing. But yeah, you could see it in his eyes, you could see it in his face, this meant a lot for him. He’s a special guy. We all love him and I’m just as happy as he is for us as I am for him. He’s just been so great for our program and we love him to death.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kristen Faulkner makes Olympic history as US wins team pursuit