Olympic champion Jennifer Valente headlines six member U.S. track cycling team for Paris 2024
Tokyo 2020 women’s omnium champion Jennifer Valente is set to return to the Olympic Games after being selected to the U.S. track cycling team for Paris 2024.
Valente will look to defend the omnium title she won in Japan while teaming up with Lily Williams (Human Powered Health), Chloé Dygert (CANYON//SRAM Racing), Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Cannondale), and Olivia Cummins (DNA Pro Cycling) in the women’s team pursuit.
Williams and Valente will also enter the women’s madison in pursuit of an additional medal for Team USA, with a chance to improve on the team’s medal haul from Tokyo 2020.
Grant Koontz (Star Track Cycling) will be the lone male representative of Team USA at Paris 2024. He will compete in the men’s omnium at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on 8 August.
Read on to find out more about the six riders representing the United States of America in track cycling at Paris 2024.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Olivia Cummins and Kristen Faulkner (United States) during the 2024 Track Nations Cup.
Meet the U.S. cyclists looking to take track cycling to new heights in the United States
Jennifer Valente began track cycling as a teenager in San Diego, California. Her early adoption of the sport built up a strong strategic backbone, which she has used to great effect in her international career. She won her first Olympic medal as a member of the team pursuit at Rio 2016, but her crowning achievement came five years later at Tokyo 2020 when she became the first U.S. rider to claim victory in the women’s omnium.
Raced over four separate distances, with four unique formats, the omnium tests a rider’s strategic ability, endurance, and speed. Valente has routinely proven that she has the right combination of all three, winning back-to-back world titles in 2022 and 2023. The 29-year-old will enter Paris 2024 as the experienced backbone of the U.S. track cycling team, chasing medals in three events at the Games.
Valente told USA Cycling, “I’m excited to officially be named to my third Olympic team.The Olympic Games have always been special to me, and this time around is just as captivating. The journey to Paris has been its own unique process with new challenges in this shortened quad. I’m thrilled to be lining up alongside long-standing teammates and some fresh faces.”
One of those long-standing teammates is her partner in the madison, Lily Williams. Williams was part of the team pursuit squad that won a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020. She adopted cycling much later than Valente, but quickly rose through the professional ranks and found a home on the wooden boards of the velodrome. Paris 2024 will mark her second appearance at the Olympic Games.
She told USA Cycling, “I'm thrilled to be selected for my second Olympics in Paris. Tokyo was an experience of mixed emotions for me, and I channeled all of that into a ton of work, devoting my career to the sport and seeing what I could do.”
“I'm thankful for everyone in my corner, especially my partner Gavin, coaching staff, and my road team Human Powered Health, for supporting me and helping me always be honest with myself about my progression. It's thanks to all of this that I will now be racing two events in Paris: The team pursuit, and new to me, the madison, which I've studied and worked on relentlessly since Tokyo, and it feels so good to see that hard work pay off. I'm so excited to see what we can do in Paris.”
Another rider bringing prior Olympic experience to the Paris 2024 line-up is Chloé Dygert. The two-time Olympic medalist in the women’s team pursuit will once again race around the boards in an attempt to beat the clock and her rivals.
The 27-year-old from Brownsburg, Indiana has a knack for beating the clock when it matters. She holds the world record in track cycling’s individual pursuit, and is the current world champion of the individual time trial in road cycling. A double threat on two wheels, Dygert is expected to race in both disciplines at Paris 2024.
She told USA Cycling, “It’s truly a blessing. I am truly blessed to be selected for my third Olympic Games in USA colors. Thankful for those who go above and beyond behind the scenes to make sure I’m the best I can be on and off the bike. We will see you in Paris.”
Anders Johnson, Colby Lange, David Domonoske and Grant Koontz (USA) compete in the men's team pursuit at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games.
Newcomer Kristen Faulkner will certainly be thankful for her selection to the track cycling team. A road cyclist by trade, she began training with the track cycling team last year in hopes of securing a spot on the Olympic team. Her selection fulfills a childhood dream that seemed unlikely to happen only a few years ago, but what’s one more twist in the story of a collegiate rower, turned venture capitalist, turned professional cyclist.
“I dreamed of competing in the Olympics ever since I was 8 years old, and I saw it on TV,” Faulkner told USA Cycling. “This is the biggest dream I’ve ever had, and it’s finally come true! I am beyond excited to represent the USA alongside such a strong group of athletes. I will do my best to bring home a medal for Team USA!”
Faulkner will be joined on the team pursuit squad by fellow Olympic debutant, Olivia Cummins. By far the youngest member of the squad, the 20-year-old from Grand Junction, Colorado will bring a burst of youthful energy to the velodrome.
She told USA Cycling, “I still don’t know how to put into words what making this Olympic team means to me. The Olympics were never something I ever thought I would be able to achieve, so, it was never a big dream of mine growing up. It was something the famous, professional athletes did, not me.”
“That is, until about a year ago when I found myself in a position where making this team became a possibility. I made the Olympics my dream a year ago, I committed fully to it, made sacrifices, and I made it happen. I can’t wait to see this dream through this August in Paris!”
The final dreamer to be selected for the U.S. track cycling team was Grant Koontz, who began cycling after his parents bought him a bike instead of a car for his 16th birthday.
He didn’t find track cycling until later in his career, but the 30-year-old from Nederland, Colorado has grown to love racing on the boards. A string of victories at the Pan American Championships and a podium finish in the elimination race at the Adelaide Nations Cup helped Koontz secure selection in the men’s omnium for Team USA.
Koontz told USA Cycling, “The Olympics has been a lifelong obsession of mine, and I’m incredibly grateful to be named to the team. I still can’t quite believe I’ll be representing Team USA in Paris this summer.”
“It’s truly a dream come true, and I have a million people to thank for helping me get there. But for now, it’s back to training and keeping to the grind that helped me get here in the first place. See y’all in Paris!”
Track Cycling at the Olympic Games Paris 2024
Track Cycling will be held at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome from 5-11 August. There will be 12 events, six for men and six for women, held in individual and team formats. Team USA will look to build on their medal haul of two medals from Tokyo 2020.