Jennifer Valente has won back-to-back gold medals in women's track cycling, the only American to finish top of the podium in Olympic history.
Valente's win puts the United States one gold medal behind China at the Paris Olympics with a handful of events leftValente finished with 144 points in the multidiscipline event, well ahead of Daria Pikulik of Poland, who had 131. Ally Wollaston of New Zealand held off Lotte Kopecky of Belgium at the end of the 80-lap concluding points race to take bronze.
Just as the peloton was hitting the bell lap, two of her biggest threats — Kopecky and Neah Evans of Britain — touched wheels. Kopecky wound up 17th, which may have cost her a medal in the end, while Evans hit the deck and finished last. 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.
While the favorites safely made the finals, Hamish Turnbull of Britain and Luca Spiegel of Germany crashed heavily near the end of their semifinal. Medics tended to both for several minutes, though each of them managed to walk off the track.Just as Lavreysen hit the front stretch of the finals, Kaiya Ota of Japan swerved up the track and collided with Jack Carlin behind him.
“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.”
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