Kristen Faulkner: I dreamed of becoming an Olympian because of the women I saw on TV

This story is part of our series celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March, and exploring how the theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’ can fit into women’s cycling, racing, tech and more.

Every pro athlete can remember the moment they realised that their future lay in sport.

For Kristen Faulkner, that moment came in 2000 during the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. Just an eight-year-old from Homer, Alaska, she watched on in awe as the likes of Cathy Freeman, Denise Lewis, and Mari Holden became household names around the globe. It was a seminal moment in young Faulkner’s life, and a juncture that changed her path forever.

“I was watching the Sydney Olympics on TV and I thought it was an amazing thing to see. At that moment it became my life goal to go to the Olympics,” Faulkner tells GCN during a sit-down interview at EF Education-Cannondale’s winter training camp in Spain.

Memories from childhood can fade with time, they blur around the edges, distort and sometimes even vanish but Faulkner’s passion hasn’t dimmed any since 2000 when she sat in awe and found her calling.

“I remember the opening ceremony, and I was really young but it was one of the most impressionable moments of my life. For the next 22 years, it continued to be my life goal. I think it was before an age when I knew what the Olympics meant to the general public or what cycling thought about it.

“It’s never been about reaching a certain level of credibility in the sport, it’s been about that little girl inside of me and what dreams she had when she was a kid.”

The purity of the Olympics

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Kristen Faulkner competing for USA in the World Championships - she dreams of doing so in the Olympics

Nowadays, a slim 15% of women’s sports makes up the media coverage in the US and 25 years ago that number was much, much lower. NFL, NBA, MLB and even the infancy of men’s soccer in the US dominated the broadcasting airwaves and written press, with mostly token gestures made towards women’s elite level sport. The Olympics, however, gave Faulkner a nook into what was possible, how female athletes could share the main stage and create heroes and superstars.

Deep inside, though, it wasn’t the fame and fortune that flicked the switch in Faulkner but the idea that any individual, from anywhere on the planet, and regardless of gender, could attain something truly special if they pushed themselves to the limit of their ability and strove for something meaningful.

“I remember watching swimming, and track and field, and I just remember thinking about how raw it felt to see someone with just their body as they tried to stretch the limits of what was possible,” she adds as she recalls her childhood memories.

“To be able to work so hard for something, and then show up at the start with just you and your body and show what you could do… your body, it’s the only thing you’re born with and it’s just you trying to achieve a dream. Something about that resonated with me.

“I’ve had a lot of goals in my life, I went to Harvard, and I worked in finance but there’s nothing that I ever strived for as much as going to the Olympics. It’s my longest-standing goal but also my purest because it started from such a young age, and from before I knew what life responsibilities were.”

Icons and inspiration

As she grew up, Faulkner gained success in a number of fields. She was a competitive swimmer, excelled at her studies and in the world of finance, before taking the plunge and joining the ranks of professional cycling at the turn of the last decade.

Had it not been for that summer in 2000, things might have been very different but Faulkner’s story is so intrinsically linked to the fact she was inspired by female icons that it goes without saying that the more exposure and coverage women’s sport receives, the greater the influence that will have on the next generation.

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Faulkner making her first steps as a pro in 2021

“You know, I saw the Olympics and thought ‘wow, these women are so much further along than I was and I want to be like them one day’. When I watched the Olympics at that point, whether I was watching swimming or other sports, there were so many female icons on TV and yet I’d turn off the Olympics and it would just be football or basketball and baseball,” she says. 

“So for me, what made the Olympics resonate so much was that there were so many women on TV. Throughout the rest of the year, it was just male athletes on TV. When you’re a young girl and you think ‘I want to do that one day’, I didn’t dream about becoming an NBA basketball star; I dreamed of becoming an Olympian because of the women I saw on TV.”

The dream comes into focus

Almost 24 years down the line and Faulkner is within touching distance of making her dream a reality. Her entire season is focused on gaining the final spot on the US women’s team for Paris, and while the task will be tough, she clearly has the determination to succeed.

In order to make the trip to France, she will need to win the women’s US time trial championship in May this year. The US have two spots for the time trial in Paris, and with Chloe Dygert an automatic selection following her Worlds win in 2023, there’s just one spot left on the table. Winning in May in West Virginia will give Faulkner that golden ticket.

“My biggest goal is to win US TT nationals and qualify for the Olympics.I want to earn an Olympic medal, so my focus is going to be on the time trial for the year,” she says. “My spring will build to the US nationals but the aim is to peak in May, not in March. The team knows that and they’re very much behind me when it comes to that plan.”

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Faulkner winning the 2024 Omloop van Het Hageland

Faulkner has already started the season with a bang, having taken an early win in Omloop van het Hageland, and a highly creditable sixth in Strade Bianche.

The Classics season is only just starting and her dreams are within touching distance, but just don’t be surprised to see the 31-year-old arrive in Paris and provide the inspiration for an entirely new generation of young female athletes.

Faulkner might not know it just yet, but that too feels like her destiny.