Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds was all smiles as she accepted her bronze medal and hugged an emotional Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) on the podium of the women’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Rissveds had come full circle after some difficult years following her gold medal ride at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Rissveds was just 22 years old when she claimed the Olympic gold medal. Not having the tools to handle the pressure, both internal and external that followed that historic victory, she struggled with depression and an eating disorder and within a year of winning the Olympic title, left the sport. She took a two-year hiatus to seek treatment and simply ride her bike for fun before returning in 2019.
Since her return to racing in 2019, she has won seven World Cups and placed 14th in the cross-country event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Now 30 years old, Rissveds proudly stood smiling on the podium.
“Now I feel relieved. It feels so great to come full circle after the gold in Rio and what happened in between. It feels so damn good to be able to set such a good race. I will definitely enjoy and feel the pride of this race,” Rissveds told Eurosport.
“It feels very big and I am so very happy and proud, above all.”
The battle was heated in the women’s race for the silver and bronze medals after France’s Ferrand-Prévot left everyone behind on the second lap and delivered a solo victory. By the third lap, Rissveds, Laura Stigger (Austria) and Haley Batten (United States) were chasing together in what seemed to be a battle for bronze until just ahead Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) punctured and fell out of contention for silver.
“For me, it wasn’t that dramatic, but there was so much going on around me all the time. It’s so ‘overcharged’ at an Olympics,” Rissveds added. “I just thought about doing my part and driving with what I had for the day. I had a lot of confidence and calm in me.”
Strongest on the climb at the start of lap 6, Rissveds and Batten were duelling for the silver with a surging Pieterse behind them. The American was able to gain a few seconds on an uphill section on the final lap where she held the gap through the feed zone, which she went through but did not take a bottle.
Rissveds crossed the line six seconds after Batten and quickly congratulated the two riders that finished ahead of her.
A distraught Pieterse, who finished fourth, lodged a protest on Batten for not taking a bottle in the feed zone but Rissveds dismissed the incident.
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