When Grace Brown started out as a runner, she thought she might hopefully make the Olympic team, but her switch to cycling made an even bigger dream come true. The 32-year-old Australian will finish his six-year career as a professional cyclist with a number of prestigious victories, including the ultimate prize of an Olympic gold medal.

Paris was always a big part of Victorian's plans for the 2024 season, with the possibility of winning a time trial medal, including fourth in Tokyo and silver medals at the last two World Championships. Then, in June, she announced that these Olympics and this season would be her last, concluding her retirement announcement by saying, “Let's see if I can retire in style.”

There may still be important goals left to achieve this season, but whatever happens next, Brown accomplished her retirement goal with a great performance in the time trial on the rain-soaked Paris roads on Saturday.

“After winning the gold medal,” he told reporters in Paris, “I'm going to be very proud of myself.

Her 1:31 gap to second-place Anna Henderson (GBR) was enough time to cover the top five in Tokyo, and given that she missed out on the rainbow jersey by just six seconds to Chloe Dygert (USA) at the 2023 World Championships, she said, “Honestly, it's a little insane. It's just not right.”

Having lost by close margins in the past, Brown was determined not to lose focus on squeezing every last second out of the race, even when victory seemed assured.

“One of my strategies was to focus on everything until I crossed the finish line,” he said. And I was going to be satisfied with just running my race to the best of my ability, no matter what the outcome at the finish line was. Of course, I was going to race to win the gold medal.

The plan worked out perfectly for Braun early on, despite tricky wet conditions that dropped some riders down the order.

“On the first check, I was five seconds ahead of Chloe Dygert; it was the first time I had beaten her on the first check, so I was pretty confident after that,” said Brown. I was in good shape and I was able to keep my pace, so I didn't feel like I was pushing.”

“I gave everything I had in the last couple of kilometers. It was a good race.”

The race was enough to put her on a whole new track.

Brown has finished the year as the top-ranked Australian women's World Tour cyclist for the past three seasons and has brought home a number of prestigious top-level road wins with her current French team, FDJ-SUEZ, but an Olympic gold medal would put her into a whole new stratosphere. Women's World Tour cycling is a sport that lurks in the shadow of the sporting spotlight in her home country, especially when compared to the blinding glare directed at the Olympics.

“These athletes are Aussie legends, names I've heard all my life,” Brown replied when asked how she felt about being among the list of Australians who have won Olympic gold. He then went on to say that he had a lot of respect for athletes like swimmer Susie O'Neill and runner Kathy Freeman, who won Olympic titles at the 2000 Sydney Games and were noticed as children.

“To be a gold medalist like them was insane. 'It's hard to understand other people who look at me the same way I looked at them when I was a little girl,' she said. It may take some getting used to.”

Nevertheless, Brown, who first took up cycling in 2015, after a running injury cut short her ambitions in the sport, will have little choice but to get used to the high-profile nature of the sport. On Sunday morning in Australia, Brown's success was all over the mainstream media, making her the first gold medalist at the Paris Olympics.

Adding further weight was her first ever Australian medal in the Olympic women's time trial.

Still, as good as Saturday's results were, the Tour de France Femme and Road World Championships still remain, and in her final season, there are other goals that continue to hold Brown's attention: the 158-km women's road race on Sunday, August 4. With an Australian team that includes national champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon and skilled domestique Lauretta Hanson, she will be a frontrunner for the win.

“I want to celebrate this one win, recover and get ready for the next one,” Brown said. 'But I think in the road race I'll be a little more relaxed and I'll be able to race at my own pace.' It's great to get one gold medal.”

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