About this episode
Kristen Faulkner is a cyclist and the 2024 Olympic champion in the Women's Road Race and Women's Team Pursuit. Faulkner grew up playing sports in rural Alaska and was recruited to row crew at Harvard. After graduating with a degree in computer science, she moved to New York City and worked for a venture capital firm, identifying early stage software startups for investment. She missed competing and being part of a team, so with a recommendation from her friend, she took an introductory cycling class in Central Park. She quickly realized she loved the sport and started training before work and on the weekends. She competed in amateur races and hired coaches to help her perfect her form. In 2020, she was invited to join a women’s professional racing team based in San Francisco, and over the next four years, she trained extensively, using her VC brain to analyze her performance. She notched several professional race wins, and after deciding to quit her VC job to pursue cycling full-time, she moved to Europe to train. This summer, she competed in the Women's Team Pursuit and Women's Road Race events in the 2024 Paris Olympics, bringing home gold medals in both categories.