Alan Hatherly became South Africa’s first-ever Olympic mountain bike medallist, securing the bronze medal in the men’s cross-country event at the Olympic Games on Monday.
Hatherly finished in third place, 11 seconds behind gold medallist Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and silver medallist Victor Koretzky (France) in the race held at Elancourt Hill, just outside of Paris.
His performance also meant that he was the first Olympic medallist in cross-country mountain bike for any African NOCs (National Olympic Committees of Africa), according to the Paris Olympic Games website.
“I think it’s kind of every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal, so to achieve that today, it’s really unbelievable for me,” Hatherly said in the media mixed zone after the race.
“To be the first African—I could be mistaken—I think the first African [cross-country] mountain bike] cyclist to get an Olympic medal is also really a special moment.”
South African cyclists secured medals in previous Olympic Games between 1920 and 1956 in the time trial, tandem, team pursuit, and one-kilometre time trial on the track. South Africa was then banned from participating in the Olympic Games for 28 years until it was readmitted in 1992.
Hathlery’s bronze was also South Africa’s second medal at the Paris Olympics after the nation secured bronze in Rugby sevens over the weekend.
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In cross-country mountain biking, Hatherly formed a lead group of three in the men’s race along with Pidcock and Koretzky, but he was distanced after a series of attacks on the last lap.
“I gave it everything out there. I could just barely follow all the moves, but I cleared the chaos in the first lap, kept it safe, and I knew that Tom was going to come back, and I was waiting for that moment,” Hatherly said.
“It ended up in a battle (of three) for the win in the last lap. I just didn’t have that two or three seconds that I needed for the win, but I’m happy nonetheless. I gave it everything out there, and that’s all that matters.
“It’s a different perspective. You’re fighting for the win and it’s quite tactical, slowing down in places that we didn’t slow down in the previous laps, and then it was going faster in strange places, just to put everyone under pressure.”
Hatherly is the current UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO series leader and also became the first South African to win an XCO World Cup race earlier in July, at the sixth round of the series at Les Gets, France. There he won both the XCO and short track races.
He has represented South Africa at three Olympic Games, previously finishing 26th place in Rio in 2016, and he finished eighth in Tokyo.
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