Editor’s Note: Follow the latest live Olympic results, Number of medals And updates for Sunday, July 28.
ELANCORT, France — Not even a broken rear wheel could stop Haley Batten in the women’s mountain biking competition at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, as she took first place in the 100-meter race. silver medal With a time of 1:28:59 despite having to ride much of the fourth lap on a virtually unmaintainable bike.
France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot pulled away from the rest of the field early on to take gold in 1:26:02, leaving Batten and Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds to dominate the action as they battled for silver in the second half of the race. Rissveds took bronze (1:29:04) but it was Batten who beat her.
Batten’s broken wheel was due to bad timing, as Batten was too far away to reach the pits at the time. The 30.8-kilometre race course included seven laps of 4.4 kilometres each, and Batten’s wheel broke about halfway through. Batten felt lucky that her bike survived long enough to get repaired.
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“It was down the main rock garden on the first descent, so it took a long time (to get help). I had to go through quite a few turns and other rock gardens, so I was lucky to stay together,” she said. “… I hit a rock pretty hard and smashed my wheel. I completely broke it. I was able to get the wheel and tire on it the last half of that descent so I could get to the (pit) and I had one of the best mechanics in the world. He fixed it really quickly. So I went a few places down, but I think that just pumped me up. It gave me an extra boost.”
Once she got a new wheel, Batten quickly recovered to get back into medal contention. She and Rissveds battled it out for the entirety of the sixth lap, trading second and third back and forth, before Batten pulled away on the final lap. Meanwhile, Ferrand-Prevot’s gold medal was well secured and received a rousing applause from her home fans. Ferrand-Prevot’s gold was her first medal in her fourth Olympics. Batten and Rissveds rode within seconds of each other for most of the sixth lap.
“We’ve had epic, exciting battles all year,” Patten said of Rissveds. “We had a concussion this year. We’ve had some of the best battles this year. I know Jenny well and we support each other. I’ve been looking forward to her for a long time. … She came out on top and held on. I knew my strength was to be strong at the end of the race, so I waited for that and picked the right moment.”
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Team USAAnother Aston Martin rider, Savelia Blanc, finished 12th with a time of 1:31:52.
Batten’s first medal comes in her second Olympic appearance, after finishing ninth in Tokyo in 2021. She won her first national title at age 14 and turned professional at 17, becoming the youngest member of the USA Mountain Bike Team when she qualified to compete in the Tokyo Games.
Patten, 25, of Park City, Utah, is coached by former Team USA cyclist Kristin Armstrong, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. On Saturday, Armstrong also coached Team USA’s Chloe Dygert to a bronze medal in the women’s road cycling individual time trial.
U.S. mountain bikers have only won two Olympic medals before, through Susan De Mattei (1996, bronze), when the sport debuted in Atlanta, and Georgia Gould (2012, bronze).
The women’s mountain bike competition will be held at the Ellencourt Hill site of the Paris Games, the highest point in the Paris region at 231 meters. The U.S. men’s mountain bike team will compete at Ellencourt Hill on Monday with riders Riley Amos and Christopher Blevins.
36 competitors are participating in the men’s and women’s competitions.
Contact Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow us on X @chasegoodbread.
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