WATCH: Cyclist Celebrates Thinking She Won Olympic Gold, But Was Actually So Far Behind She Didn’t Realize Somebody Beat Her

Leia IdlibyJul 26th, 2021, 3:10 pm
 
Cycling - Road - Olympics: Day 2

Tim de Waele/Getty Images

Annemiek van Vleuten of Team Netherlands celebrated a bit too early after finishing the women’s Olympic cycling road race.

While she did earn a coveted Olympic medal, the cyclist shot both arms in the air after finishing her race on Sunday — thinking she earned the top spot when Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer had actually beat her by 75 seconds.

Kiesenhofer, who studied Maths at the University of Cambridge before earning a PhD from the University of Catalonia, easily took home the gold after riding completely solo for the final 40km of the race.

Kiesenhofer was actually so far ahead of her competitors that some did not even realize she had finished the race, as cyclists could no longer see her in front of them.

Second-place finisher van Vleute even admitted to thinking she came in first, later saying, “I was wrong. We got nothing,” according to a Google translation of her post-race comments.

British cyclist Elizabeth Deignan, who finished 11th, was also confused by Kiesenhofer’s impressive lead, congratulating van Vleuten in a post-race interview with the BBC:

While she didn’t win gold, van Vleuten certainly did not get “nothing,” as the cyclist still finished the 147-kilometer course in 3 hours and 54 minutes, earning herself a silver medal.

Although she admitted to being “gutted” when she discovered she hadn’t come in first, van Vleuten said, “I’m really proud of the medal, because I did not have an Olympic medal. It’s also a silver medal with a shine on it, because I felt super good today.”

Kiesenhofer also reflected on the race, partially attributing the win to her math skills:

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