Kristin Armstrong sealed a remarkable third Olympic time trial gold medal in Rio on the eve of her 43rd birthday. She covered the Rio Games route in 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds to top reigning bronze medalist Olga Zabelinskaya of Russian Federation by the slimmest of margins: 5.55 seconds.
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Silver went to Olga Zabelinskaya, Russia, and bronze to Anna van der Breggen, the Netherlands.
Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk slid off the course, likely costing her a medal.
Just a day before she turns 43, Armstrong added to her gold medals from Beijing and London to become the first cyclist to win three Games titles in the same discipline.
“It’s incredible, I don’t know if it has hit me yet”, Armstrong told reporters after hugging her five-year-old son and holding up a sign that said “USA STRONG”.
Edmonton cyclist Tara Whitten placed seventh in the women’s time trial race at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday. She was allowed to cut her hours down to 16 hours a week last fall, she said, so her family’s health insurance would remain in effect while she trained for the Rio Summer Games.
“I found one in my coffee cup yesterday, it said: ‘You’re a champion, ‘ ” Armstrong said. “I’m happy to get the medal, anyway”.
But a month ago, Armstrong’s place on the four-woman USA team was in doubt in another sideshow common with subjective Olympic selections.
Armstrong graduated from the University of Idaho in 1995, and her gold medal win certainly created a buzz on the Moscow campus, according to Kathy Barnard, the executive director of alumni relations.
“Today the stars aligned”.
She said: “I couldn’t clip in with one foot at the start”.
Zabelinskaya, the bronze medallist four years ago in London, recently returned to competition after an 18-month suspension for using a banned stimulant in 2014. Just minutes before, Armstrong, 42 and the most dominant time-trial rider in Olympic history, had stood on the top step of a celebratory podium, taking in the Star-Spangled Banner on a gray, misty day on Rio’s western shoreline. He’s old enough now to have gone to races with her, to have watched her strain and sweat and to have shared her joy. My coach said to me, ‘OK, you decide what colour medal you want to have’. “I thought, ‘Oh well here we go”.
“People have asked me over and over why am I back, and it’s because I can”, she said.
The men’s race began at 9:00 a.m. ET. During Sunday’s road race, she rode selflessly in support of teammates Stevens, Megan Guarnier and Mara Abbott, the latter of whom escaped solo and almost won gold before getting caught and finishing fourth. Tokyo 2020? Armstrong said she no intentions of making yet another comeback.
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“I’m not the only cyclist that has a doping problem in the past”, said Zabelinskaya, who has always maintained her innocence.
