Four Years After Leaving Wall Street... The Story of a 'Harvard Graduate' Gold Medalist [Paris Olympics]

Paris Olympics Women's Cycling Road Race Gold Medal
Christine Forkner Started as a Hobby 7 Years Ago
Quit Job 4 Years Ago to Become an Athlete

Christine Faulkner (31), who graduated from the prestigious Harvard University and worked as a venture capitalist before suddenly competing as a member of the U.S. national cycling team, has joined the ranks of gold medalists at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He reportedly joined the U.S. national team only a few months before the Olympic opening, despite having started cycling as a hobby and then conquering the world stage.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported, "Faulkner, who lived in Alaska seven years ago and didn’t even know how to clip cycling shoes into pedals, has become the Paris Olympic champion."

U.S. Women's National Cycling Team Member Kristin Faulkner
[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

On the 4th (local time), Faulkner won the gold medal in the women's road cycling race held in Paris, France, with a time of 3 hours 59 minutes and 23 seconds. The gap between her and second-place Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and third-place Lotte Kopecky of Belgium was less than a minute. She set a record as the first American female cyclist to win gold in this event in 40 years since 1984, achieving an incredible feat in her Olympic debut.

Faulkner’s victory has become a major topic in the United States. She joined the national team earlier this year after Taylor Nye, who had been the national representative in this event, decided to focus on other competitions such as triathlon, leaving a vacancy. Faulkner, who quit her job in 2020 to focus on cycling, seized the opportunity by winning the World Championships last year.

What is noteworthy is that Faulkner has only been cycling for seven years. In her childhood hometown of Alaska, she enjoyed outdoor activities such as hiking and rowing as hobbies. She was active as a rowing athlete through college and even competed in junior championships. Then, in 2017, she moved to New York for work, and her life changed when she started cycling as an outdoor activity she could do in the city.

Faulkner rode beginner courses in Central Park. She developed a strong passion for cycling by collecting various equipment such as helmets, shoes, and shorts. She told WSJ, "In some ways, it feels like I just learned how to clip cycling shoes into pedals yesterday." She was also active on a cycling team.

At that time, Faulkner was a venture capitalist who graduated from Harvard. After graduating in 2016, she was a promising finance professional working full-time at a Wall Street venture capital firm discovering unicorns. However, captivated by cycling, she chose the path of a professional athlete, which could have made even making a living difficult, right after winning her first professional race in 2020, three years after joining the firm. Foreign media have shown great interest in the story of how an office worker became a medalist.

Faulkner explained that her dream of the Olympics was much bigger than any dream she had in finance. She told the Associated Press, "A few years ago, I took a really big risk to chase my dream." She added, "I learned how to calculate and evaluate risks, and I maintain that mindset in races. Knowing when to go all-in."