The mountain biker Alan Hatherly is living the dream after winning South Africa’s second medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Monday. Hatherly won the bronze in the men’s cross-country for his very first Olympic medal and also South Africa’s first in mountain biking.
At one stage the South African was riding in second, but ultimately had to settle for third, after an incredible surge by the now two-time Olympic gold medal winner, Thomas Pidcock of Great Britain. It was definitely a thrilling race with just 11 seconds separating the top three riders.
“It was an unbelievable race,” he said a few hours later, still pinching himself. “It was both super fast and tactical. I managed to clear the charge early on and led for the first lap. The race started to happen after that and I got caught out a bit. I slipped back (to fifth) and had to chase hard to get back into the medal position.
“And when Tom had his mechanical (puncture) I moved up to second. My plan was to empty the tank the last two laps and with Tom coming back I held on to him as he made his way to the front. There was a massive battle for the medals on that last lap.
“It’s every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal and now that I have got one, I’m still lost for words. It’s going to take some time. It still hasn’t sunk in. It’s been a career goal of mine since I was a child. To have achieved it today is such a joy.
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.
ALSO READ: South Africa bags its first Olympics medal in Paris 2024
