Long after gutsy bronze-medal ride at Paris Olympics Alan Hatherly is ‘still lost for words’

Gary Lemke, via Team SA – Long after the big crowd had packed up and made their way home, Alan Hatherly was still trying to come to terms with the enormity of what he had achieved on a muggie Monday afternoon in Paris.

But he will know that the dream is indeed reality. The Team SA cyclist, claimed the Paris Olympic Games bronze medal in the men’s mountain biking at Paris 2024, becoming the first South African to win a medal in the sport since returning from international isolation at the 1992 Games.

The 28-year-old produced a ride full of character to follow Tom Pidcock and Victor Koretzky across the finish line in front of where the crowd lined the route in unashamed support of their hometown hero Koretzky.

The eight-lap course at Elancourt Hill offers the most spectacular views of the city and indeed of the iconic Eiffel Tower, but this was no time for sightseeing. It was a case of head-down and go through all the pain barriers that would come his way for every second of the 86 minutes and 33 seconds that it would take him to ride his race.

Hatherly has always promised big things and arrived in Paris in the form of his life, having won back-to-back World Cup events. In his second Olympics he looked to be one of the men to beat. And so it proved.

“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.

“I ticked all the boxes in terms of nothing going wrong and not making mistakes. It’s truly a dream come true for me to win a medal for Team SA at the Olympics.”

Team SA