MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France — Three years ago, Jennifer Valente became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic track cycling event when she claimed gold in the omnium.
At the Olympic Games Paris 2024, she put an exclamation point on her omnium dominance.
Valente won two (of four) races and then effectively shut down almost every move in the points race, collecting 144 points, 15 more than runner-up Daria Pikulik from Poland. Ally Wollaston from New Zealand rounded out the podium with 125 points.
Valente’s gold medal is her fifth Olympic medal total, won over three Olympic Games, and her second gold of these Games. She won a silver medal in team pursuit at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, a silver and gold at the Olympic Games Toyko 2020.
“First and foremost, I’m just really tired,” Valente said, standing in her full podium outfit in the stifling velodrome. “This has been a really long process, and even though it was a three year quad, I think it was really jam packed into three years, and we’ve been nearly full gas the whole time. So this is such a way to go out.”
First introduced at the Olympic Games London 2012, the omnium — meant to determine the best all-around rider (sprinting to endurance) — has changed since its debut. Once a six-race event contested over two days, it’s now a four-race event held on the same day.
The scratch race comes first, where the first rider across the line after 30 laps wins, gaining 40 points toward the omnium total. Next up is the tempo race, sometimes called the “point-a-lap” because the first rider across the line on each lap earns a point (after the first five laps); the rider with the most points at the end wins.
The third event is the elimination race, where the last rider across the line every two laps is eliminated until there is one left. With 22 riders in the Paris 2024 women’s field, they did 44 laps. The omnium ends with the 80-lap points race, with a sprint for 5, 3, 2, 1 points every 10 laps, double points at the finish and 20 points for lapping the field.
Since her victory at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Valente has dominated the discipline, with two world titles in 2022 and 2023.
Valente’s Climb Through the Track Cycling
Ranks
A track cycling veteran, Valente got her start at age 13 taking free classes for kids at the San Diego velodrome. A year later, she tagged along with friends to the national championships and ended up winning two junior titles.
Marty Nothstein, an Olympic gold medalist in track cycling, noticed the young talent and told Valente’s coach at the time, “She’s a special one, make sure you take care of it,” reported the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Good at track sprinting, Valente racked up 12 junior national and one junior world title. At age 16, she was named to USA Cycling’s 2012 Olympic “long team,” the list of riders from whom the Olympic cycling team was selected. She did not compete in London, but it helped her realize that competing at an Olympic Games was possible.
In the summer of 2013, Valente moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to train and met Sarah Hammer, who encouraged her to try track’s endurance races (individual pursuit, team pursuit, and omnium). At the time, Hammer had won two of her four Olympic silver medals (in team pursuit and omnium).
Source link : https://www.teamusa.com/news/2024/august/11/jennifer-valente-wins-another-olympic-gold-medal-in-track-cyclings-omnium
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Publish date : 2024-08-11 19:46:08
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