Comeback for gold-medal cyclist Armstrong (no connection to Lance)
OLYMPIC CYCLING
Kristin Armstrong overcomes arthritis to win first place in the women's road cycling individual time trial at the Beijing Games.
BEIJING -- This is why you should like Kristin Armstrong. She is a world-class cyclist -- and as of Wednesday an Olympic gold-medal winner -- but chuckles when she Googles herself and finds more references to Lance Armstrong's first wife than to herself.
Well-meaning cycling fans often approach her and ask if she is Kristin Armstrong, and when she says yes, they ask whether Lance lets her see any of his seven Tour de France trophies.
"I used to try and explain who I am," Armstrong said. "I've kind of given that up now and I just play along."
Same name, same spelling, but decidedly not the that Armstrong.
This Kristin Armstrong won her gold medal in the women's road cycling individual time trial, covering the course in a blistering 34 minutes, 51.72 seconds, more than 24 seconds faster than silver medalist Emma Pooley of Britain. Karin Thurig of Switzerland won the bronze medal with a 35:50.99, almost a full minute off Armstrong's pace.
"It's one of those dreams you have as a child in America," Armstrong said.
"It's the most amazing day of my life," she said. "I've been working for this for the last eight years, especially the last four, and to time everything right on one day is an accomplishment of its own."
Indeed, this Kristin Armstrong has her own story to tell and, in its way, is almost as compelling as that of Lance Armstrong's survival of cancer, record-setting Tour de France career and post-marriage habit of dating celebrities.
"Lance lives a life I'm not at all familiar with," Armstrong said during a break from her grueling summer series of racing that prepared her for these Olympics. "No movie stars or million-dollar bank accounts for me."
Armstrong, 34, is from Boise, Idaho, and is married to Joe Savola, who is not a celebrity, and her athletic career began in the triathlon where she had to learn to love swimming and running as much as she always enjoyed cycling.
She was a little girl who grew up practicing to be on an Olympic medal podium, but by 2001 all Armstrong was practicing was how to lift herself into bed one leg at a time in the most painless way possible.
"I had started having some pain in my hips for a few months, but I'm kind of a self-confident person and thought I could diagnose myself," she said. "I would ice my joints and take anti-inflammatories and just push through. . . . When I realized the over-the-counter anti-inflammatories weren't working I went to my doctor and said, 'I need stronger stuff. . . . Just write me the prescription.' "
