The Road to Los Angeles 2028 Begins Now for Kristen Faulkner

Kristen Faulkner is back in gold medal beast mode as the double Olympic champion blows out the cobwebs and puts the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games firmly on her radar.

Faulkner is hot off winning double gold medals at the Pan American track cycling championships last week as her roadmap toward the Olympic Games on home roads starts to take shape.

“We had a pre-race camp at the Los Angeles velodrome, the 2028 Olympic venue,” Faulkner said on social media. “Standing on that track for the first time turned an abstract goal into something real and close. LA 2028 prep is officially underway.”

Just as Faulkner framed it, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games are barely two years away. The first steps toward defending her Paris golds on the road and team pursuit on the track are gaining traction.

The Pan-Am Games come as Faulkner enters a pivotal season on the pavement as well in the third and final year of her current deal with EF Education-Oatly.

After an off-season shoulder surgery, she’s already rolled out her new WorldTour team kit for 2026, trimmed in gold to honor her two Olympic titles and U.S. road title.

Like she’s always done in her career, she will keep targeting the biggest prizes in the sport.

She wants to win a monument and a stage at the Tour de France Femmes to complete the grand tour triple to go along with stage wins at La Vuelta and the Giro.

Pan-Am double track gold

Faulkner underwent successful surgery in early September on her right shoulder after crashing at the Tour de France Femmes, ending her 2025 campaign early.

In February, she returned to the boards for the first time since Paris 2024, lining up for a USA Cycling team pursuit session on the same boards that will host the Olympic events in two years.

Unlike 2024, when she was a late addition to the four-rider pursuit squad, she now anchors the program as a double Olympic champion.

“I’m back practicing team pursuit for the first time since the Olympics,” she wrote. “I was nervous coming back. The lead-up to Paris was intense. Every session felt like a tryout, and every mistake felt like failure. The pressure was necessary, and it brought out the best in me, but it also took a lot out of me. This time feels different. I have space to work and improve.”

With none of the other Paris 2024 heavy hitters yet on the boards, including Chloé Dygert, Lily Williams, or Jennifer Valente, Faulkner was joined last week by Paris 2024 reserve rider Olivia Cummins, reigning U.S. road time trial champion Emily Ehrlich, Bethany Ingram, and Emma Jimenez Palos.

The result? Gold medal at the Pan-American track championships in Santiago, Chile, in team pursuit and another gold in her first crack at individual pursuit.

The U.S. women won a total of nine medals, and the men came home with gold in the Madison, silver in the team pursuit, the 1km time trial, and the scratch race.

Double gold for Faulkner — sounds familiar, right?

Building toward a big summer

With one eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Games, she also has a big road season ahead of her.

After winter team camps, she’s back on the bike and having some fun, too.

She transitioned into the racing season with a backroad adventure ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles with friends. It wasn’t all coffee rides, with one day including a monument-level power hit out, with 345 TSS [training stress score], 130 miles, seven-plus hours on the bike, and 9,290 feet of climbing.

“Adventure is what makes me feel alive,” she said. “More of that in 2026. Working hard feels easy when you love what you do.”

Faulkner will continue to work track cycling into her training and racing calendar, but she will now transition to the pavement.

For 2026, her calendar reveals her ambition.

In March, she returns to the road with the Pan American road championships, with the road race and time trial events in Colombia.

Then it’s back to Europe, with the Ardennes classics in April and La Vuelta Femenina in May.

Then it’s back to the States to defend her U.S. road titles from 2024 and 2025 in June.

And then the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in July and August.