August 8, 2024 – 7:17 PM
Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
On Thursday, she was crowned Olympic champion in the women's keirin cyclist event – an event in which competitors (six in each race) complete three laps behind a main engine while accelerating to 50 km/h. The handler then leaves, the race begins, and the fastest at the end of another three laps wins.
The fastest can reach very high speeds at the end, in Thursday’s quarter-finals that meant an average speed of 65 km/h, but they also exceeded 70 km/h, and with that speed, it doesn’t hurt to be careful. But that didn’t work in the first quarter-final, which saw a huge collapse after the top six crossed the finish line. Dutchwoman Steffi van der Putte lost her balance and fell on China’s Yuan Lijing, who then fell on Belgian Nicky Degrendeel’s bike.
Special bikes weren't designed for this kind of thing, so once the Chinese fell onto the Belgian's bike and suddenly grabbed the wheel, the carbon fiber wheel broke, but pieces of the helmet were probably thrown onto the track.
After the fall, both Degrendele and Jüan had difficulty leaving the track, which had to be patched and repaired for the competition to continue.
Degrendele, affected by the fall above, finished 11th, and Van der Peet finished 10th in the B final. Elsie Andrews of New Zealand won the gold medal, Hettie van de Wouw of the Netherlands won the silver medal, and Emma Finucane of Great Britain took the bronze medal.
