WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Lily Williams is considered one of the best cyclists in America.

Her racing season this year began in January at the Women's Tour Down Under in Australia.

“I've had a very long season, I think I'm not the only one,” said Williams. “I think the Olympic year is long for everyone.”

Williams is a professional cyclist born and raised in Tallahassee who races all over the world. This year alone, she has raced in Belgium, Spain and Italy, to name a few places.

She is currently focusing on Colorado Springs' preparations for the Summer Games.

“We're here for three and a half weeks,” said Williams. “We're about halfway through our altitude block and then we'll do our final preparations in Belgium.”

At the Olympic Games in Paris, Williams will compete in two team events: the team pursuit and the Madison on the Velodrome.

She credits Florida with nurturing her talent. Her parents still live in Tallahassee, while she calls France her home.
     
“Growing up in Tallahassee laid the foundation for everything because I was a cross country and track runner in Florida in high school and later in college,” Williams said. “Being an athlete in Florida from a young age was really important to my experience as an athlete in my development.”

In 2020, they won a world title in the team pursuit. While many expected the same team to take home gold at the Tokyo Olympics, they took bronze for Team USA.

We asked Williams what she defined as success at the Paris Olympics. She says she worked hard to win this summer and her teammates did the same.
      
“It's pretty much impossible to expect results,” she said. “You can know how fast we're going to go; we can know how fit we are, but the point of the Olympics is that it's kind of a random mix. People come out of nowhere and the people you think are going to do really well don't. So I look at Paris as kind of my redemptive Olympics, to just come back and really enjoy myself.”

After the Olympics end, she returns to road racing and some of the biggest races in the world.