After an eventful two days of racing, the women's team pursuit wrapped up on Wednesday with the American women guaranteed a gold or silver medal. The U.S. women's squad almost lost it on the final 500m of the race, but recovered to win gold over New Zealand with a time of 4:04.306.

The Americans had never won the women’s team pursuit but have earned a medal each time the race has been offered at the Olympics. That changed when the team of Kristen Faulkner, Chloe Dygert, Jennifer Valente and Lily Williams beat New Zealand for gold at the 2024 Paris Games.

FULL RESULTS

The U.S. had a messy start but recovered by the 500m mark to gain the lead and then had a 1.2 second lead at the halfway mark. The U.S. dropped to three riders before the 2500m mark, when Dygert took the front position for the Americans. With 1000m to go, the U.S. had stretched its lead over New Zealand to 1.543 seconds. 

Disaster almost struck for the Americans when Faulkner — the only member of this team who didn't compete at the Tokyo Olympics — started to lose pace near the 3500m mark. After pushing too hard for the world record, the U.S. adapted when Faulkner dropped, and changed tactics by slowing down to stay as a group. 

The U.S. squad avoided the same fate of losers in earlier races, who couldn't maintain the pace as an entire group. In team pursuit, a team's time is counted when the third rider crosses the finish line, so Faulkner's drop was cause for concern. The Americans managed an impressive recovery back to a tight trio and held on to cross the finish line with a time of 4:04.306, the fastest time of the competition.

Williams after the race remarked, “It is pretty surreal. I do not think anybody expected this."

“We thought we would ride around a 4:07 on a perfect day, so this goes beyond that.”

Faulkner won her second gold medal of the Games, after winning a surprise gold in the women’s road race last week. She’s just the second woman to win gold in road and track cycling at the same Olympics, joining Leontien van Moorsel of the Netherlands.

Faulkner just wanted to perform, “We knew we had a strong team coming in, and I feel like the lucky one because they (her teammates) have won medals before on the track and I haven’t. I just wanted to live up to their expectations.”

Dygert won her fourth career medal after securing the bronze in the women’s individual road time trials earlier in the Games. She had previously won two medals in the team pursuit (silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo).

Valente won her second career gold medal (she won the omnium in Tokyo) and her fourth Olympic medal (team pursuit silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo). She will try to defend her omnium gold on Sunday.

As for Williams, it was her first career gold medal and her second career medal (bronze in team pursuit in Tokyo).

New Zealand finished six tenths of a second behind the Americans for the silver medal, its best finish at the Olympics in women’s team pursuit.

Kiwi Nicole Shields was happy to win a medal, regardless of color, “It’s so heavy. I just wanted to share everything with these girls and wouldn’t want to win it with anyone else."

Veteran Bryony Botha added, “It’s never been done by a New Zealand team and we’ve made history, and we can be really proud of ourselves.”

In the bronze medal race, Italy was looking for its first medal in this discipline. The Brits entered the race having gone three seconds faster than Italy in earlier rounds. A harbinger of what was to come, Great Britain executed the come-from-behind victory to beat Italy for the bronze medal.

Great Britain didn’t have a good start and Italy led by half a second at the 1000m mark and nearly a full second at the 2000m mark. It looked like the Brits were going to run out of time to catch Italy, but Great Britain's veteran squad didn’t panic.

With less than a kilometer to go, Great Britain was down by sixth tenths of a second, and that’s when Great Britain put on a master class in comebacks. Behind Elinor Barker, the Brits took the lead at the 3625m mark. They didn’t lead long, but they made it count, finishing 2.5 seconds ahead of Italy for the bronze medal with a time of 4:06.382.

Great Britain has earned a medal every time this race has been competed, including two golds, a silver and now the bronze.

After the race, Baker was happy to win bronze, “It was the ride of our lives. The way track cycling works is - you lose (a gold-medal race) and get silver, but you win a bronze."

Germany vs. France

The roar of the crowd set the scene for Germany and France. Germany was disappointed to be racing for fifth place after winning gold in Tokyo. Their Games would end on a low note as France capitalized on a tactical error by Germany to win the fifth-place race.

The race started as planned for Germany, who led France by half a second or more for the first 1500m of the race. France closed it back within 3 hundredths of a second at the 2150m mark, but at a pivotal moment, Germany chose to have Mieke Kroger lead the quartet of racers for four laps. It was too long, and France took over the lead by the 2500m mark. 

France dominated the back half of the race and led by over a second entering the final lap. The French riders finished with a national record time of 4:06.987 for fifth, nearly a two-second improvement on their personal best.

Australia vs. Canada

Australia cruised the entire race, never threatened by Canada. The Aussies' time of 4:11.548 was a couple seconds slower than prior rides, but they played it safe to secure the seventh-place finish.