Portrait of a champion: Jennifer Valente’s Olympic gold is the product of bodily and mental strengths

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Amid the crashes and chaos, Jennifer Valente noticed a transparent path to Olympic gold.

American biking followers will at all times keep in mind the thrilling ultimate bicycle race of the 2021 Olympics — the Factors Race leg of the ladies’s Omnium — because the historic coronation of Jennifer Valente. Over the course of 20 kilometers, Valente marked Japanese rider Yumi Kajihara; she monitored harmful strikes by Amalie Didericksen, Kirsten Wild, and others; and she or he even crashed to the picket boards and remounted her bicycle.

After 20 minutes of chaotic battling, Valente earned sufficient factors to say the gold medal and grow to be America’s first feminine Olympic champion on the velodrome. The picture of Valente sitting on the velodrome, draped in an American flag, crying tears of pleasure turned the lasting picture of the 2021 Video games for U.S. biking.

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Within the days after the race, VeloNews spoke to Valente’s coaches, teammates, relations, and associates — in addition to to Valente herself — concerning the milestone win. What emerged was the portrait of a victory that sprung each from Valente’s supreme pure items and her lengthy historical past within the sport, and likewise from particular parts of her character.

“You’re frequently studying and enhancing, and the extra errors you make, you strive to not make them once more,” Valente informed VeloNews. “After which there are selections you possibly can’t actually take into consideration — they need to be made on intuition within the Omnium.”

Together with her win, and her new place in U.S. biking, Jennifer Valente is probably primed to guide girls’s observe biking right into a daring new period. And Valente’s success on this new state of affairs could depend on a very completely different facet of her character.

The pondering individual’s bike racer

The Olympic Omnium, with its arcane algorithm, and scoring sheet primarily based on 4 particular person occasions, seems to be custom-fit for Valente’s bodily and mental strengths. Riders compete in a Scratch Race, a Tempo Race, an Elimination Race, with their putting in every including factors to their total complete.

Then, within the ultimate occasion, the Factors Race, each level earned throughout the 20km race provides to that ultimate complete. It’s an occasion that caters to endurance riders who may also generate excessive energy for mid-race sprints, earlier than resting and recharging for the following occasion.

Valente has the best physiology for the repeated efforts, stated her longtime coach, Benjamin Sharp.

“She’s extremely robust and carries plenty of muscle, and she or he’s in a position to make the most of that,” Sharp stated. “She has an incredible anaerobic capability and good repeatability. Her acceleration is phenomenal, whether or not seated or from standing, and few people who she’s racing with can match that charge of acceleration.”

These bodily attributes, Sharp stated, stem partly from her lengthy historical past with the Crew Pursuit, the place the hassle requires riders to speed up to breakneck velocity, keep a punishing tempo, after which slot again into the group, earlier than repeating it once more. Legs and lungs apart, Valente additionally has a character and racing mind that’s {custom} match for the mathematical problem posed by the Omnium and its factors chase.

Those that know Valente greatest use comparable phrases when describing her character. She’s analytic, inquisitive, and very smart.

“Even when she’s ordering tacos, Jenn is analyzing stuff,” stated Chloé Dygert in 2017. “Jenn thinks like an engineer thinks.”

Certainly, Valente is pursuing a level in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Colorado, and in dialog, she speaks with a literal and virtually mathematical view on conditions — that’s, when she speaks in any respect. Valente can come throughout as understated and even shy in social conditions. Those that know her greatest stress that, behind that quiet demeanor, there may be an observant and curious mind that’s at all times absorbing and calculating info.

“She could be very observant and she or he research each state of affairs she’s in,” Sharp stated. “She calculates. She is aware of the principles. She is aware of the factors. She’s analytic and can examine each state of affairs because it evolves to see the place she will win.”

“She’s essentially the most knowledgeable individual I do know,” stated teammate Emma White. “I don’t know the place she will get all of her info, however she is aware of every part about, um, properly, something.”

Studying observe biking’s technique has taken years, but Valente’s analytic character has been current for her total life. Tom Valente, her father, stated that the unaccustomed typically mistake Jennifer’s quiet nature along with her being shy or uninterested. That’s not the case. Valente is solely taking in every part she sees and hears.

“She retains her playing cards near the vest,” Tom Valente stated. “That’s who she is. It could come throughout as shy and unassuming. Let me let you know, she’s analytical, and actually a pondering individual’s bike racer.”

Throughout a observe race, these calculations happen in break up seconds. All through the Olympic Omnium, Valente’s tactical selections have been typically overshadowed by the whirring of wheels and motion of the digital camera. But time and again all through the occasion, Valente made the right selections, regardless that followers could have missed them.

Sharp factors to 2 particular moments that required her to make flash selections that finally received her gold. Within the first reminiscence, Valente held a lead within the total standings going into the Tempo Race, however early within the occasion, a harmful breakaway attacked, forcing Valente to determine whether or not to react or keep tucked within the subject. She attacked.

“She made the very fast determination to bridge throughout, and that isn’t usually her fashion of using — she tends to lurk within the background and take factors which are simpler to get,” Sharp stated. “However high riders went up the ‘street’ and she or he was in a position to get throughout and take a lap with that group.”

The following second of brilliance got here throughout the Factors Race, the place Valente wanted to shadow Kajihara, but additionally maintain tabs on half a dozen riders who have been inside putting distance of her lead. One after the other, riders attacked into harmful breakaways, and Valente both put in effort or saved her legs within the subject, primarily based on which riders made the strikes. She allowed nonthreatening riders to assault and freely gobble up factors, understanding that it put her closest rivals in a deficit.

Had she attacked too quickly, Valente could have worn her legs out for Kajihara’s ultimate dash. Had she sat again, Wild could have leapfrogged her within the factors standings.

“Whenever you begin off, everyone seems to be a menace,” Sharp stated. “Jenn is aware of the factors unfold of the riders, and all rider’s strengths and weaknesses. She knew precisely what she wanted to do to achieve success.”

“Make no mistake,” Sharp added. “She’s a killer.”

Product of San Diego biking

Maybe the defining second of the Olympic Omnium got here lengthy earlier than Valente’s dogged chase within the Factors Race. Through the Onium’s opening occasion, the Scratch Race, Valente discovered herself boxed in on the within with simply 4 laps remaining. Then, a lapse in focus and contact of wheels despatched 9 riders careening to the observe at excessive speeds. In a fraction of a second Valente maneuvered onto the observe’s black middle, then again onto the observe.

Three laps later, she received the dash to take most factors within the first of 4 occasions.

Three thousand miles away, Tom Valente watched the race at his house in Scripps Ranch, a bed room group northeast of San Diego, California. The crash and aftermath introduced again recollections of Jennifer’s experiences in San Diego’s topsy-turvy Fiesta Island bike races when she was a youngster.

“It’s a mass-start factor and it may be pretty loopy; it’s all about energy and bike dealing with,” Tom Valente informed VeloNews. “Jenn would do the Tuesday evening races on the velodrome, then the Camp Pendleton Experience with me on Wednesday, after which Thursday evening was Fiesta Island.”

That intense three-day bloc of coaching and racing helped Valente forge the legs, lungs, and love of motorbike racing as a youngster — an age when younger cyclists typically uncover passions and pursuits exterior the game. Valente caught with biking and credit the San Diego biking group for serving to her follow the game, and develop a love for bike racing.

“Not having such a aggressive atmosphere from the start modified my outlook on the game,” Jennifer Valente stated. “The group and making it enjoyable — it appears like a cliché, as a result of individuals say ‘don’t overlook to have enjoyable,’ however chasing an Olympic dream is such a taxing factor to try this in case you don’t have that basis in it, it’s actually onerous to proceed.”

Biking turned Valente’s favourite sport at age 12 after the household took what would grow to be an annual summer time journey to Mammoth Lakes, California to journey mountain bikes. Inside a yr or so Jennifer was happening street rides along with her father, and at age 13 she began taking youngsters lessons on the San Diego Velodrome, which has nurtured a junior racing group since its building within the late Nineteen Seventies. There have been youngsters races and instructors, in addition to the thriving Tuesday evening racing scene, the place elite riders mingled with newbies in a enjoyable and low-pressure atmosphere.

“It was enjoyable and casual and everybody would exit for pizza afterwards,” Tom Valente stated. “She’d be down there selecting her personal gearing and altering her personal gears. I feel it was an vital scene for her.”

Valente blossomed early, and graduated from the beginner class into extra superior teams. An vital ingredient of the Tuesday Evening races was how athletes have been grouped by skill and never by age or gender. Riders begin within the “D” class, after which work themselves as much as “A.” As a youngster Valente recurrently battled with grownup women and men within the “A” class, and the experiences helped her develop the fast-twitch reactions and strategic mindset required for observe racing. In junior races she typically confronted off towards a handful of different teenaged women, however within the Tuesday evening velodrome occasions, Valente confronted riders at her stage.

Ralph Elliott, who has been concerned in San Diego’s biking group as an occasion organizer for years, was the race announcer for a lot of of Valente’s early occasions. After just a few years of racing, Elliott stated, Valente had grow to be well-known for her skills to deal with the strongest riders on the observe.

“Nothing was extra satisfying than watching her on the entrance of the A bunch using a bunch of men off of her wheel,” Elliott stated. “They suppose they’re sizzling [stuff] and there may be this teenaged lady beating them. It was fairly spectacular. You possibly can see a star shine in a bunch like that.”

In highschool Valente juggled water polo with bike racing, however by 2011 and 2012 she started to indicate nationwide and worldwide success on the observe and street. In 2011 she claimed two junior nationwide observe titles, and the following yr she received the junior world title within the Scratch Race. These outcomes helped push her to pursue bike racing full-time, and Valente joined the then Twenty12 professional street group as a improvement rider.

One other ingredient of the observe that helped push Valente ahead was her first coach, famed U.S. observe racer Mark Whitehead. Often known as a hothead throughout his personal professional profession, Whitehead was well-known for his booming voice and stern method as a coach.

Whitehead died from a coronary heart assault in 2013, and Elliott stated he noticed Whitehead’s no-nonsense method influence Valente all through her early years in observe biking.

“I keep in mind he informed Jennifer that it doesn’t matter what number of instances you fall down you possibly can at all times get again up and nonetheless win,” Elliott stated. “I considered Mark after I watched her in Tokyo.”

The strict Whitehead, plus the muse she’d solid on the San Diego Velodrome, helped provoke a love for biking that turned invaluable in her later life. Professional biking palms out setbacks and disappointments to all elite racers, and essentially the most profitable ones are in a position to navigate these moments to forge on. Valente stated that the love of biking she cultivated in San Diego has been invaluable in her profession.

“I feel as a junior, Mark Whitehead in addition to all of the individuals who helped me and have been round me as I used to be a junior coming into it,  of studying the entire technique of issues,” Valente stated. “Studying concerning the observe and the racing. Racing every kind of races regionally — Factors Race, Keirins, sprinting, Scratch Races, and random stuff that occurs at native velodromes like snowball races and win-and-outs — studying work on my bike. All of these items have been a part of the journey. I feel that every one contributes to the gathering of information.”

A quiet chief with a rising platform

Olympic champions are uncommon in U.S. street and observe biking, and the nation has topped simply two Olympic gold medalists prior to now 30 years. Each of these riders — Kristin Armstrong and Mary Nothstein — used their respective victories to construct platforms for themselves within the sport. Nothstein turned director of the Valley Most well-liked Velodrome in Trexlertown, earlier than operating for public workplace in Pennsylvania. Armstrong has constructed a thriving nationwide teaching enterprise, and she or he’s a figurehead for youth well being and wellness in Idaho.

How will Valente use her platform? It’s a query that Valente admits she has but to completely take into account.

“It’s going to deserve plenty of thought within the coming weeks and months,” Valente stated. “I haven’t had an opportunity to course of every part.”

Whereas the reply could take some time to return, there are hints in Valente’s current previous that she has the non-public abilities and character to educate, direct, and assist others study observe biking. From 2018 via 2021 Valente was integral within the rebuilding of the U.S. girls’s Crew Pursuit squad, following the tragic dying of Kelly Catlin and the retirement of Sarah Hammer. Valente turned the captain of this system, and she or he used her years of expertise and confidence to nurture new riders Emma White, Lily Williams, and Megan Jastrab.

The proof of Valente’s management may be seen within the group’s outcomes. They received the world championships in 2020, after which captured Olympic bronze in 2021 regardless of not having competed for greater than a yr.

Gary Sutton, the group’s head coach, stated there have been parts of the occasion that even he struggled to get throughout to the riders. The steering required somebody on the group and contained in the occasion, and Valente took on that position.

“When individuals first come into this group, it’s actually troublesome. You’re feeling uncomfortable,” Sutton stated. “The strategy of Megan or Lily — after I first got here in, I simply shook my head. I’m not shaking my head now, and plenty of that’s from [Jenn]. Her honesty with the group has stored this group collectively.”

White, who additionally joined the observe group from street biking, stated she struggled with a number of parts of the Crew Pursuit, from the hassle, to the exchanges. Valente was fast with suggestions, she stated, and her teaching fashion was direct and constructive.

“The best way she offers suggestions, it’s simple to latch onto it and she or he offers it in a method that’s simple to hearken to,” White stated. “She’s been round. She’s been doing this since her junior days so I belief her utterly.”

Jastrab, who joined the squad when she was simply a youngster, stated Valente’s management power shone via in her self-confidence. Her steering helped Jastrab shrug off the stress of competing on the world stage in an occasion she had simply began.

“She’s at all times been so supportive of me, simply being like ‘you’re a superb rider, belief your self, don’t have doubts, and simply go race your bike — you understand what you’re doing,’” Jastrab stated. “She’s shared so many ideas with me, too.”

Jastrab and Valente have been paired with one another for the Olympic Madison occasion, and the juxtaposition of the 2 was evident early. Jastrab is a current junior world street biking champion, and she or he entered this system as a youngster. Valente, a lifelong velodrome racer, is in her mid-20s. Nonetheless, Valente took Jastrab underneath her wing and gave her each tactical recommendation and emotional assist as she discovered the occasion via trial and error.

“My first World Cup, I used to be so burdened,” Jastrab stated. “She’s like ‘nope, you understand what you’re going to do? You don’t have to fret about something. We’re simply going to race our bikes and have a superb time.’ And we acquired on the rostrum. I used to be very nice to have that reassurance.”

It’s a top quality that’s not at all times present in high champions, but it speaks to a component of Valente’s character that might present alternatives for her lengthy after her biking profession involves a detailed. At 26, Valente has loads of bike races left in her legs, and in three years she is going to undoubtedly line as much as attempt to win the Olympic Omnium once more, and to assist energy the U.S. girls’s Crew Pursuit squad to a different medal. However in 2024 one factor is certain to be completely different — the remainder of the world might be watching her.

One factor is certain to be the identical in 2024: Jennifer Valente is certain to be the identical quiet, calculating, cool bike racer that she’s at all times been.