U.S. cyclist Kristen Faulkner surprised the world when she took gold in both the cycling road race and the Women’s Team Pursuit events at this summer’s Paris Olympics — becoming the first U.S. woman to win gold in the Olympic cycling road race since 1984 and the only Alaskan to ever win two gold medals.

Just weeks later, she competed in the Tour de France and finished as the top American racer on Aug. 18.

Faulkner, who lived in Homer through middle school before moving to Massachusetts for high school, reflected on the community support she received from former teachers and mentors in Homer during her time competing in Europe.

Some of her early influences and mentors included teachers in the local schools, she told the Homer News. She noted specifically Betsy Kirby at Paul Banks Elementary School, Janet Fink, Shirley Gribble, Gary Kirby and Caroline Venuti at Homer Intermediate School and Tim Daugharty and Linda Rourke at Homer Middle School.

She said many of her previous teachers reached out to support her and congratulated her for both the Olympic medals and her Tour race.

“It meant a lot to have these people who knew me from when I was really young continue to support me. I feel a lot of reinforcement from Homer,” she said. “All these teachers really encouraged me to work hard, gave me positive feedback, and they always made me feel like I was capable of anything I wanted to be,” she said.

She noted one particular assignment in Venuti’s third grade class at Homer Intermediate School when the students were asked to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. One student asked if he could be president of the United States and Venuti responded, “if that’s what you want.”

“I think sometimes teachers maybe don’t realize how influential they can be in someone’s life. And I think they’ve all been super influential in mine,” Faulkner said.

Faulkner also mentioned some of the sports and coaches who influenced her as an elementary school student at Paul Banks: Lucy Mahan with swimming, Saundra Hudson with cross-country running and Jill Berryman and Ken Castner with the Homer Nutcracker Ballet.

“Homer was a place where I felt like I could try lots of different sports, and I could try lots of different things. And you know, I tried playing volleyball, I tried playing basketball, I tried playing soccer. I always felt like sports were a really welcoming community for me, and I think especially as a woman and a female athlete, just never having any inhibitions about being a female athlete growing up was something that I don’t think like every woman in the world receives,” she said.

In the 2024 Olympics, the U.S. women received more medals than the men and that’s a feature that shows support for women athletes in the country in general, she said. The total U.S. Olympic medal count was 126 with 67 received by women athletes, according to the U.S. Olympics medal list.

In terms of other Homer community support, she also mentioned a poster featuring an image of her competing that was placed on the highway sign at the Baycrest pullout provided by the Homer Chamber of Commerce, and a framed Olympic screenshot photograph of Faulkner that someone anonymously left on her mother’s doorstep.

In addition to discussion about support from Homer, she talked about Olympic training preparation.

“This year, my preparation was all focused on the Olympics, and that’s a very different kind of race from the Tour de France, which involves long, steep climbs,” Faulkner said.

Faulkner said she didn’t really have any major ambitions for the Tour when she went into it. “I was pretty tired going in after the Olympics,” she said.

Faulkner had Olympic fans and her parents cheering for her at the Tour and now that it’s finished, she’s looking forward to some recovery time and outdoor fix in the Colorado mountains before flying back to Europe. When she returns to Europe she will be training for the World Championships. The 2024 race takes place in Zurich, Switzerland, from Sept. 21-29.

Faulkner is currently living in Girona, Spain, in order to consistently compete in the European races. She plans to return to Homer for a visit for Christmas this year.

Kristen’s parents, Jon and Sara Faulkner, owners of Homer’s Land’s End Resort, attended the Olympic Games and watched the first day of Tour de France that started in Florence, Italy, on June 29.

They said Faulkner joined the Tour at the very last minute because one of the previous teammates for the team got sick with COVID.

They also noted that Kristen’s training for the Olympics was primarily for the team event, not the personal gold in the road race.

“It was exciting to watch the team relay event; it’s a really fast race,” Sara Faulkner said. They were joined by about 40 of Kristen’s family members and friends, including several people from Homer, specifically naming former classmates MacKenzie Mahan and Hallie Hudson.

The Faulkners said they arrived at the Olympics the evening before the road race event. At that point Kristen still hadn’t decided if she was going to participate in it because her priority was the team track event. “We just encouraged her to do it, and said, you know, really, you just need to follow your gut instinct,” Sara Faulkner said. That race ended up being one of her gold medal achievements.

Jon Faulkner talked a little more about the rest of the upcoming year, explaining that the bike season has been extended in the past few years as a reflection of just the interest in the sport.

He explained that the upcoming World Tour is the equivalent of World Cup for soccer and for skiing, a professional, elite-level competition for bikers.

Although it’s called the World Tour, most of the races are held in Europe and that’s why Kristen made the decision to move to Europe. “If you’re going to excel in women’s cycling and compete in the professional circuit, that’s where you have to be,” he said.

He also talked about some of Kristen’s general motivations in life as an athlete. “She never lost interest faith in the dream. It wasn’t a question of whether she was moving forward, it was how. Barriers and obstacles always exist in every aspect of life, but she moved past them.”

He also commended the role that the community of Homer provides for the people who grew up here. Mentioning his own family, he said, “we hear a lot from our kids about how much they retain their love for the community,” he said. “It’s not just the human community, but the natural environment and landscape, too.”

The Faulkners are planning to hold a community reception for Kristen when she returns to visit over the Christmas holiday. More details will be available closer to December.