By Martyn Herman

SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) – American Kristen Faulkner started taking cycling seriously four years ago but won a historic double gold medal in four incredible days at the Paris Olympics.

On Wednesday at the National Velodrome, she was a key part of the team that won the United States its first Olympic gold in the women’s team pursuit, beating New Zealand on the boards.

She beat the world’s best road racers to take the gold medal after her sensational victory in the women’s road race on Sunday.

Faulkner, 31, a former venture capitalist who cycles for fun, became the first American woman to win gold medals in two different disciplines at the same Olympics.

She also joins a very short list of women to achieve this feat; others include Leontien Ziljaard-van-Moorsel, who won gold in track and road racing in 2000, and Esther Ledecka from the Czech Republic, who won gold in snowboarding and alpine skiing in 2018.

“I’m still pinching myself,” the Harvard graduate and former rower from Alaska told reporters when asked to sum up her first Olympic Games.

“It’s going to take a long time to understand. My goal was just to make it to the Olympics and then take home a medal. So to take home two medals is more than I could have ever imagined.

“We knew we came with a strong team and I feel lucky because they (his teammates) have won medals on the track before and I haven’t. I just wanted to live up to their expectations. Hopefully there’s more to come.”

The USA team, consisting of Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Chloe Dygert and Faulkner, defeated England in the first round and then advanced to the gold medal match against New Zealand.

Despite getting a little tired towards the end of the 4-kilometer section of the race, our athletes, who opened up a good gap and won two silver and one bronze medals in the previous three Games, managed to achieve victory.

Valente, who will be trying to defend his omnium title in Tokyo this weekend, said it has not been a perfect journey.

“I think we made good decisions and rode well on race day,” he said. “None of our rides were perfect, but I think individually we can all achieve a lot and we really come together as a team.”

There was talk of breaking a world record in the final, but Germany’s gold medal time in Tokyo was unattainable.

“I actually think if we had held it together a little bit better we could have gone faster. So there’s a feeling there’s more to come,” Williams said.

Dygert, an eight-time track world champion, added a gold medal to the individual road time trial bronze she won in Paris.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)