Jennifer Valente rode the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines one last time with the American flag flying on Sunday, a dominant defense of her Olympic omnium title giving her a second gold medal in four days.
The American flag often flew after cycling events at the Paris Games.
The Americans won three gold medals and six overall, their best showing at an Olympic Games in four decades. Valente capped it off in style. The 29-year-old from San Diego finished with 144 points in the final event of the cycling program, well ahead of Poland’s Daria Pikulik and New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston, who rounded out the omnium podium.
“It’s been a really long week of racing,” Valente said. “I did qualifying (team pursuit) over a week ago and we had some really good performances, so I’m really excited to make it on the last day.”
Kristen Faulkner also won two gold medals in Paris, winning the Olympic road race and joining Valente and teammates Lily Williams and Chloe Dygert in winning the team pursuit. The Americans’ three gold medals and six gold medals are their most since the team won four gold medals and nine gold medals overall at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Ricardo Mazalán / AP
Earlier in the final cycling session, Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen won his third gold medal of the Paris Games by beating Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer and Matthew Richardson in the men’s keirin final, and New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews won her second gold and third overall medal by sweeping past Germany’s Lea Friedrich in the sprint final.
The session began with the scratch race, the first event of the omnium, where riders try to complete 30 laps as quickly as possible. And as Valente had done at the Tokyo Games, she played the cat and mouse game perfectly to ensure maximum points.
As the peloton entered the bell lap, two of its biggest threats – Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and Great Britain’s Neah Evans – touched wheels. Kopecky finished 17th, which may have cost her a medal in the end, while Evans hit the ground and finished last.
In the tempo race, where a point is awarded to the leader of each of the final 25 laps, Valente was joined by Pikulik and Georgia Baker of Australia in an early attack, and they worked together to share the remaining 21 sprint points.
In the elimination race, where one rider is eliminated every two laps, Valente continued to dictate how things would play out. On the final lap, she edged out Baker to once again claim maximum points.
Valente had a 10-point lead going into the points race, where the top four finishers in sprints every 10 laps get points. Riders can also earn a 20-point bonus by completing a lap of the field, which the American did with 36 laps to go.
Ricardo Mazalán / AP
Valente had such a lead that she only had to avoid any catastrophe to get on another Olympic podium.
“I definitely went into the points race based on the few people behind me and the points gap,” she said. “I was pretty happy to let other people take points and try to let the race evolve.”
In the keirin, world champion Kevin Quintero of Colombia and two-time world silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands were eliminated in the same quarter-final, where only the top four of six riders qualified for the semi-finals.
The final was marred by a violent crash as Lavreysen entered the straight before Japan’s Kaiya Ota swerved and collided with Jack Carlin. The British rider fell heavily and slid to a stop at the bottom of the track, where he lay motionless for a moment as medics rushed to check on him. Carlin eventually got back up and was able to leave the track.
Lavreysen won gold in the sprint and team sprint earlier in the week, then finished the job after narrowly missing out on a hat-trick at the Tokyo Games. He won gold in both sprint events, but had to settle for bronze in the keirin.
“I felt really strong all week,” Lavreysen said. “This morning I thought, ‘This is possible,’ but I needed to have a perfect finish, and I was really close to it.”
Richardson won silver in the keirin, as well as silver in the sprint and bronze in the team sprint, while Glaetzer won his second bronze of the Paris Games after also competing for Australia in the team sprint.
Andrews, whose father Jon competed at the 1992 Barcelona Games, rode a brilliant race in her best-of-three sprint final. The 24-year-old from Christchurch won the first race in the lead, holding off Friedrich all the way to the finish line, then overtook her German rival in the second race to claim the gold medal.
Andrews also won the keirin and teamed up with Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton to take silver in the team sprint.
“I’ve been sprinting since I was 19. I’ve been riding track since I was 13 or 14,” Andrews said. “I’ve been dreaming of being here for 10 years and I never thought it was possible.”
In the race for sprint bronze, Britain’s Emma Finucane swept aside Netherlands’ Hetty van de Wouw, winning both races from the front. It was the 21-year-old Welshwoman’s second medal after her bronze in the keirin.
“I would have loved to win gold, but this bronze medal means the world to me,” Finucane said. “The last two races I gave it my all. I have nothing left to give.”
