Anyone happen to see the end of the women's road cycling finals today? The US took the gold for the first time since 85. The winner came back from fighting for 3rd place with a few other people, ~30 full seconds behind 1st and 2nd, to take the win by ~30 secs or so in the last few miles. Once she caught up to the girls in 1st and 2nd, she just hit the boosters and took off.. literally! Even after all the work of catching up. The commentators were freaking out. Some of the other people in the group of 4 at the end with her were former world champions and gold winners.
She's only been cycling for around ten years.. not competitively but at all. She was a venture capitalist who went to school and into rowing.. started riding in NYC and went from there.. road cycling wasn't even her cycling event here. The most insane part of it all is that she didn't even qualify for a spot in the finals. Another member of team USA had to drop out and gave her the spot. Needless to say, not only was she not favored, she wasn't even on the fucking radar! Not even an afterthought in fact.