Faulkner, the American Dream: From Alaska to Olympic Gold

Kristen Faulkner is the American dream. The town where she was born, Homer, Alaska, has a nickname that says it all, “at the end of the road,” because after that there’s nothing left. It’s a natural paradise, the world capital of halibut fishing, one of those places you see in movies: the failed manager is transferred to Homer, goes there with the wrong shoes, without a decent down jacket, and in a few weeks realizes that in the middle of the snow and salmon you live more calmly, falls in love with the prettiest girl in town, never leaves and they all lived happily ever after. Kristen, the Olympic road cycling champion, left Homer as soon as she could. And she left Paris too: there were three kilometers to go to the finish line, there were four of them left for three medals, she was the slowest, she couldn’t just stay there waiting, “I came to win, not to participate.” She crossed the finish line 58 seconds before the others, and didn’t even raise her arms, “I knew I had won, but I didn’t know it.”