Tallahassee native Lily Williams makes Team USA track cycling team for Paris Olympics

Lily Williams is heading to Paris.

The Tallahassee native and former Chiles runner has been selected to Team USA's Olympic Track Cycling team for the second time in her career. A cross country and track and field runner at Vanderbilt, Williams turned in her spikes for a cycle in 2018, a decision that has changed the course of her career.

Part of the bronze medal-winning team pursuit cyclist team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Williams heads to Paris filled with motivation from her last appearance.

In an interview with voxwomen.com, Williams said the COVID-impacted games gave her mixed emotions and motivated her to work her way back to Olympic competition.

"I’m thrilled to be selected for my second Olympics,” said Williams. “Tokyo was an experience of mixed emotions for me, and I channeled all of that into a ton of work, devoting my career to the sport and seeing what I could do.”

Williams will compete in the team pursuit and madison competitions for Team USA.

“It’s thanks to all of this that I will now be racing two events in Paris,” Williams told voxwoman.com. “The team pursuit and new to me, the madison, which I’ve studied and worked on relentlessly since Tokyo, and it feels so good to see that hard work pay off. I’m so excited to see what we can do in Paris.”

Team pursuit is an endurance event that includes four riders on a team racing 16 laps against another team, with the four riders completing the 16 laps in a quicker time winning.

The Madison is another endurance race, mirroring that of a track relay race. Riders complete a set number of laps before handing off the baton to the team's next rider, with the lowest finishing time being deemed the winner.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games run from July 26 to Aug. 11, with track cycling scheduled for Aug. 5-11.

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney