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On the ultimate day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games, reigning Olympic champion Jennifer Valente (USA) maintained her focus all through the four-race ladies’s Omnium, securing the gold medal as soon as once more.
Valente’s gold medal is her fifth Olympic medal general, earned throughout three Olympic Video games, and her second gold of those Video games. She beforehand gained a silver in group pursuit on the Rio 2016 Olympics and each a silver and gold on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“There’s nothing higher than this and I’m tremendous, tremendous happy and enthusiastic about this,” Valente mentioned.
“I feel every Olympic medal is approached as its personal entity and also you goal a race and also you do what you may to organize and that’s usually both an entire quad, it’s a four-year course of and even an eight-year course of or an entire profession course of. And so choosing occasions and specializing in these and actually focusing on what you’re making an attempt to perform.”
“Every Olympic medal is its personal course of and its personal journey.”
The technique on the ultimate day of racing on the Olympics was to remain calm within the scorching velodrome.
“Staying cool, not overheating was an enormous one, however so far as racing goes, taking every race as a stand-alone principally and actually type of come out swinging for each after which reset for the subsequent race.”
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After inserting first within the scratch race and second within the tempo race, Valente led your entire Elimination race, choosing off opponents one after the other. By ending first within the third occasion, she added 40 factors to her complete, extending her result in 10 factors over Australia’s Georgia Baker.
The American rider knew that something might occur within the chaotic closing race, the factors race.
“An omnium is actually not over till it’s all the best way over and bunch racing will be so unpredictable and loads of issues can occur, there will be crashes, individuals can take a late lap or, or, and each time there are factors, the leaderboard reshuffles a bit bit,” she mentioned. “So you need to proceed to guage what’s occurring.”
After incomes 5 factors within the first dash of the factors race, Valente carefully monitored Baker, who was narrowing the hole. With underneath 50 laps to go, a number of riders lapped the sector, every gaining 20 factors. Sensing the urgency, Valente made a decisive transfer to affix them, efficiently lapping the sector and including 20 essential factors to her complete. Valente clinched the Olympic title with 144 factors.
Whereas each Pikulik and Wollaston compete on the highway with Ladies’s WorldTour groups—Human Powered Well being and AG Insurance coverage-Soudal, respectively—Valente views herself primarily as a monitor racer.
“I’m a monitor racer earlier than I’m anything the place loads of my opponents I feel are highway racers or cyclocross or mountain bikers or wherever they arrive from and throughout disciplines so much.
“The monitor is so distinctive, it’s so quick, it’s so many issues occurring and the sensation that you just get, going as onerous as you may right into a bend and you may really feel your self being pushed towards the monitor, you may really feel the velocity and, and every little thing, that’s most likely what I really like probably the most – simply driving the monitor and racing the monitor.”
When requested if she deliberate to compete on the 2028 Los Angeles video games, Valente replied “I feel I’m going to attempt to rush to get to the Closing Ceremony proper now. That’s the one factor I’m excited about.”
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