Rio Olympics: The incredible story of cyclist Kristin Armstrong's hat-trick of gold medals, at 42

Veteran American cyclist Kristin Armstrong completed a remarkable Olympic hat-trick of gold medals, after coming out of retirement for the second time, to win the women’s 29.7km time-trial in Rio on Wednesday.

Just a day before she turns 43, Armstrong added to her gold medals from Beijing and London to become the first cyclist to win three Games titles in the same discipline.

She also became the oldest female Olympic cycling champion, breaking her own record from the London Games.

“I don’t have words to describe it. When you’ve already been two times at the pinnacle of the sport, why risk coming back for the gold medal? The best answer I can give is that I can,” said Armstrong, who retired after each of her two previous Olympic successes, only to come back in search for more glory.

In wet and windy conditions, she posted a time of 44min 26.42sec, edging out Russian Olga Zabelinskaya – who herself returned from an 18-month doping suspension last year – by 5.55sec; Olympic road race champion Anna van der Breggen, of the Netherlands, finished third, 11.38 seconds behind Armstrong.

Armstrong said that she was inspired by her American team-mate Mara Abbott’s near miss in the road race – when she was heading for gold only to be caught 150 metres from the line, and had to settle for fourth.

“I thought about Sunday,” said Armstrong, who played a supporting roll for Abbott on Sunday and was the first to console her after she finished fourth, told reporters.

“I knew today I had to give it everything for my team and for Mara. The last 24 hours she has been leaving me notes. There was one on my coffee cup yesterday, I found another one on my hairbrush, last night there was one on my pillow,”

“And this morning there was one in my podium bag. The support she has given me since her race is phenomenal. I feel this was the tightest team I’ve been on,”

“Today the stars aligned. I knew it was going to be a close race. My coach said to me, ‘OK, you decide what colour medal you want to have,”

“I dug so deep. I thought about Mara, and I gave everything for her in the final 5km. To hear the national anthem on the podium, that’s my favourite part of the Olympics,” added Armstrong, who was greeted at the finish with a hug from her five-year-old son Lucas.

Armstrong returned from a second retirement in 2015 to give it one last go for Rio, having also quit the sport in 2009, to start a family. Her son was seen hugging his tearful mom at the finish as the rain beat down.

“Mama, why are you crying?” Armstrong was asked by the 5-year-old who watched as she powered across the finish to win.

“That’s a great question from a 5-year-old,” she said.

“‘Why am I crying? Because it’s what we do when we’re happy!’ I’m going to have to explain that one to him a little later.”

Her son also shared the podium with her after she won gold in the 2012 London Olympics. “I wanted to have my son on the podium with me. That was my vision, that was my dream. It’s what got me up every morning, to train. What woke me up every morning in the really cold frigid mornings was a vision of having Lucus on the podium with me,” she had said of what inspired her comeback initially.

A moment in time that nobody could take away. @k_armstrong #Olympics https://t.co/FmWwYvKr3W

— Olympics (@Olympics) August 11, 2016

Armstrong said age came into play, too, noting it took two full days of cold baths, massage and recovery following Sunday’s road race to be ready for the time trial. It didn’t always used to be that hard.

But she also has a life at home in Boise, Idaho, that beckons her. She’s also the director of community health at a hospital, and wants to spend more time doing the kind of outreach that truly drives her these days.

“I’ll go back home and everyone will be super excited, my super fans,” Armstrong said, “and I’ll go on with my legacy – being to help improve the health of people in Idaho.”

“My husband will be like, ‘Where did you really go?’” Armstrong said. “I spend time with people in my community, and that’s what I’m grateful for. One of the things I can’t wait for is my next school visit and to talk to kids and show them my gold medal. I can’t wait.”

Armstrong said that she still does not know if winning a third gold represented “closure” for her stop-start career.

“I think, of course, any athlete would like to come back and keep coming back, but there does come a point where you won’t be able to perform at that level any longer.

“Tomorrow’s my birthday and I think I’ve probably pushed it to the maximum level at the age I am,” Armstrong said.

With inputs from agencies.