Park City’s Haley Batten struck silver in the women’s mountain bike race Sunday on a grueling 5 kilometer course laden with obstacles.
She had the top finish yet in the Olympics for an American mountain bike rider. Susan DeMattei in 1996 and Georgia Gould in 2012 won bronze.
Five-time world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the race for host country France in 1:26:02, dominating from start to finish. The rest of the field battled, and two who looked like they had a good chance at podium finishes suffered bicycle breakdowns.
Batten overcame a flat tire herself and raced a more strategic race and in the end sprinted to her second place finish with a time of 1:28:59. She came in five seconds ahead of Rio 2016 Olympic champion Jenny Rissveds, of Sweden, who won bronze at 1:29:04.
Batten said she tailored her training to the course at Elancourt Hill after racing it in a test last year. She’s ranked third in the world in cross country, fourth in short track, and second in shorter-length formats.
Before heading to Paris, she lauded the athletic culture in Park City.
“I feel so lucky to have grown up there and been part of the amazing cycling and outdoor community,” she said. “Growing up in a town with Olympic training facilities, Olympians and Olympic medalists, you can feel the pride that the Park City has for the Olympic dream. I hope to give back to the community of young athletes and cyclists in Utah as much as I can.”
“Sport is a huge part of our culture in Utah, summer or winter,”said Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 Board Chair Catherine Raney Norman, a four-time Olympian herself. “We are proud of Utah’s Haley Batten with her silver medal in mountain biking today. Haley’s success comes after growing up in the same mountains that were host to the 2002 Winter Games is a tribute to the culture of sport in Park City.”
This past May, Batten won Pan American Mountain Biking Championships gold in at Soldier Hollow, the cross country, biathlon and nordic combined venue for the 2034 Winter Games.