Kristin Armstrong had just put together another golden effort in an Olympic time trial, this time slicing through driving wind and rain, when her 5-year-old son approached her at the finish.
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Cyclist Kristin Armstrong of the United States became the first American woman to win gold in the same event at three Summer Olympics when she the women’s individual time trial event Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, at Pontal beach, Rio de Janeiro.
“You can set a goal and accomplish anything you want”. It doesn’t matter your age; it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. “And I think there’s a lot of athletes out there that are actually showing that’s not true”.
It went perfectly for Armstrong who, one day shy of her 43rd birthday, joined speedskater Bonnie Blair as the only American women to win three gold medals in the same event at any Olympics. “It’s very emotional that I win the medal again”.
How could it be anything but? Her son, Lucas, was born in 2010.
Here in Idaho, Kristin’s strength trainer, colleagues and friends say she invited them along for the ride.
“We prove this with the biological and everything, and I didn’t have time to go ahead with the (CAS) because I had to race, and if I don’t race I don’t get to go to the Olympics”.
That’s why he was confused when she wept at the finish line Wednesday after she had covered the course in an exhausting 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds. “And I stopped and he said, ‘You won.’ I said yeah, and he said, ‘So why are you crying?'” “My husband was screaming at me, he said”.
That overload of emotions was entirely understandable.
Armstrong, whose selection to the USA team had been unsuccessfully challenged by two other athletes, led the race early, fell three seconds behind Russian Olga Zabelinskaya, and worked herself back into a good position with about five kilometers (a little over three miles) to go. That’s when her coach, Jim Miller, stepped in via radio. Now it’s up to you on what color you want to bring home, ‘ ” she said. “Sometimes, I can overthink, I can read media and listen to it and get really stressed out about what somebody is or is not doing”.
“Just her heart and determination”, said Kyle Sela, Armstrong’s strength trainer. “That’s how I am”.
In Sunday’s road race, Armstrong had tried to help Mara Abott win gold only for her fellow American cyclist to slip from first to fourth place over the final 150 meters of Sunday’s road race.
“When Kristin wins, Idaho wins”, said Ed Castledine, Armstrong’s colleague at St. Luke’s Health System. The dispute went to arbitration, and though the arbitrator ruled to keep the team as-is, Armstrong admitted that the questioning of her slot was a distraction. She not only made it but won. She works full-time in community relations for a hospital in Boise.
“I’ve had the hardest journey this Olympics that I’ve ever had”, she said. She’s won many big races before, starting with her first national road race championship in 2004.
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Her task was complicated when she developed a nosebleed about 13 kilometers into the race, which had happened only two or three times that she could recall. “I’m not the only cyclist that has a doping problem in the past”, said Zabelinskaya, who has always maintained her innocence. “Because it’s what we do when we’re happy!’ I’m going to have to explain that one to him a little later”.
