Surprising revelation about female athlete winning cycling gold medal, leaving Nguyen Thi That far behind

The 31-year-old completed the 158km race in 3 hours 49 minutes 23 seconds after accelerating in the final stages, launching a sprint and leaving behind the three race leaders.

Racer Vos Marianne (Netherlands) won the silver medal with a time of 4 hours 21 seconds and Kopecky Lotte (Belgium) won the bronze medal with a time of 4 hours 21 seconds.

Kristen Faulkner won the women's road cycling gold medal for the US team for the first time in 40 years since Connie Carpenter-Phinney won in 1984 (Photo: Getty).

This is a race that Vietnamese racer, Nguyen Thi That, participated in. However, despite her efforts, the Vietnamese female racer was still unable to compete with the world's top athletes, finishing only in 73rd place out of 93 competitors, with a time of 4 hours 10 minutes 47 seconds.

Notably, Kristen Faulkner's gold medal was a big surprise to many, especially because the 31-year-old athlete had to wait until the last minute to be named to the US cycling team.

The U.S. Cycling team had previously secured two spots in the women’s road cycling events, with Taylor Knibb and Chloe Dygert. But in early July, Knibb withdrew from the road race to focus on the triathlon, opening the door for Faulkner to compete.

Dygert crashed on the first corner of the Cote de la Butte Montmartre climb with just 45km to go and finished 15th.

Kristen Faulkner celebrates historic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Photo: Reuters).

It was the first victory for the United States at the event in four decades and marked the second time the team had won gold in the women's road race, after Connie Carpenter-Phinney won gold in 1984.

Kristen Faulkner came to road cycling quite late, when she was 23 years old (in 2016) the Alaskan athlete tried her hand at this new playground. However, the athlete born in 1992 quickly dominated this sport through her three Grand Tour stages in the past two years to become the US champion.

"It's a dream come true. I'm still looking at the finish line sign and wondering how my name got there," Faulkner said after winning the historic gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/tiet-lo-bat-ngo-ve-nu-vdv-gianh-hcv-xe-dap-bo-xa-nguyen-thi-that-20240805163127896.htm