“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”.
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This is a developing story and will updated with more quotes from Armstrong shortly.
A day before she turned 43, the evergold cyclist survived some horrendous conditions in Rio to claim her third straight title in the women’s time trial at the Olympic Games.
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.
Armstrong, who suffered a nosebleed at one point in the race, initially retired from the saddle in 2009 to start a family before calling it a day once more after her win in London four years ago. “I thought it was just water”, she said, then tried to swipe it away only to see her hands were bloody.
“I have to give it everything for Mara and what happened with Mara”, she told herself.
And she beat the silver medalist, 36-year-old Olga Zabelinskaya of Russian Federation, by 5.55 seconds in the event where each competitor simply races against the clock. However, Armstrong, who had been a controversial selection for the Olympic Games, stormed home to take her third gold medal, beating Zabelinskaya by five seconds and equalling Leontien van Moorsel’s record of three road gold medals.
Cancellara finished the course with a time of 1:12:15.42. “Mama, why are you crying?” “I don’t have words to describe it”, she told the Associated Press. “And I stopped and he said, ‘You won.’ I said yeah, and he said, ‘So why are you crying?'”
“That’s what we do, we cry when we’re happy, ” she replied.
The former was one of the Russian athletes that initially looked set to miss the Games altogether following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to expel those who had previously been sanctioned for doping, although she was subsequently reinstated. When she’s not training she has a full time role at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise, Idaho, where she’s director of community health. And she focused on raising Lucas.
Then 18 months ago, she decided to make another gold-medal run. “I love challenges in life”.
“To leave the sport at the end of this season with the gold medal is just a flawless way to end my career”. Armstrong competed with blood streaming out of her nose for the first half of the grueling hilly 18.5m course, battling through wind and the rain before speeding over the finish line.
Zabelinskaya, who finished third in the road race and time trial in London, was in tears at the end. Last month, an arbitration hearing called by US time trials champion Carmen Small debated whether Armstrong was unfairly selected.
And then, Armstrong fell to the ground.
Rain and heavy winds made an already hard track extremely challenging. But she called this victory “the most gratifying”. “It was two weeks like this”, she said. “Some people are just better at cornering in the wet, I guess”.
“And this morning there was one in my podium bag”.
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It wasn’t until a week before she departed for Brazil that Armstrong’s place was confirmed. “I found one in my coffee cup yesterday”. It’s given me great pleasure to represent the team. I know that balance is my secret weapon. Armstrong also won in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
