Forty-two-year-old American Cyclist Kristin Armstrong battled slippery roads, strong winds and fierce competition to win gold at Rio’s Summer Olympics, helped in part by growing up as a military child.

While she didn’t know it at the time, the daughter of a 26-year career Marine Corps officer was gaining valuable international competition skills while a student athlete at Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan.

“We’d hop on a military plane and compete in mainland Japan, Korea, Guam and the Philippines,” Armstrong said. “Now, from day one of competition I have the upper edge. It doesn’t matter whether I go from America to South America, Asia or Europe. I’m able to adjust to the time zone and the food.”

While Armstrong understands why some people would say spending most of her life overseas would be hard, she would, in her words “definitely go back in time and do it again.”

Armstrong is the only cyclist, male or female, to win three consecutive Olympic Golds in the same discipline. She finished the women’s individual time trial event Aug. 10 with a time of 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds, 5.55 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia.

Armstrong, her five-year-old son and husband live in Idaho, where she works at a hospital in Boise. AFN interviewed her in Beverly Hills before the Olympics began. AFN has the entire interview on its Myafn Facebook page.

AFN television continues its extensive coverage of the 2016 Rio Summer games through the closing ceremony on Aug. 21. Go to myafn.net for a complete listing of events in different worldwide time zones.