Olympic champion builds her own AI to decode her body

What you probably already know: Two-time Olympic cycling gold medalist Kristen Faulkner spent almost a decade collecting her own biometric data so she could become a better athlete. But, noting that “the research I needed about my own body didn’t exist,” she ended up building her own AI model based on 4,400 hours of her own training history. Faulkner, a former venture capitalist and sales leader, says she’s been coding the past two months — sometimes more than 10 hours a day — whenever she’s not training, resulting in “a system that pulls in the data sources I actually use as an athlete.”

Why it matters: Only 6% of all sports medicine and exercise science is conducted exclusively on women, according to Human Kinetics Journals, citing a study conducted by several medical organizations. Faulkner, who studied computer science at Harvard and watched the AI boom while working in San Francisco, says on her blog that even less is done on elite female athletes. “So, I took matters into my own hands,” she says, “and I started writing the research itself. I did not want to keep waiting for someone else to study the questions that matter to my body.”

What it means: Faulkner says she “struggled to synthesize” all kinds of biometric data she had collected over a span of nine years: heart rate; HRV; sleep; weight; power; temperature; training load; menstrual cycle phases; bloodwork; and DEXA scans. She notes that every app she used have her just “one piece of the story.” She used the data to help her prepare for the Pan Am Championships, where she nabbed three gold medals this year. “AI is going to change women’s performance research from the bottom up,” she says, “and I want to be a part of it.”

What happens next: At the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Marissa Baranauskas is working to improve research on women’s health through the 6% Female Performance Research Laboratories. Baranauskas, a former Division 1 college cross country and track athlete, is a PhD assistant professor in human physiology and nutrition and the lab’s primary investigator. “Coaches often didn’t understand or want to talk about what was going on with female athlete’s menstrual or bone health,” she recalls. “Talking with other women, I saw how common it was.” As Faulkner, who is training to defend her Olympic gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, says: “I did not win because I had the deepest race history or the most experience. I won because I used my brain as much as I could. I studied every corner of every course, and I analyzed my data rigorously. I am doing the same thing now with AI.”