South Africa's Alan Hatherly claims brilliant bronze in Olympic ...

We probably should have expected something special from eight-time South African mountain bike champion Alan Hatherly, but even so, an Olympic bronze medal in a field stacked with talent was a sensational outcome.

Hatherly (28) secured South Africa’s second bronze medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics and earned the first mountain bike medal for South Africa in the eighth staging of the event at the Games.

“It [an Olympic medal] has always been a goal since I was a child growing up and to have achieved it today is unbelievable. It’s been such a journey to get to this point,” Hatherly said afterwards.

“The last few weeks [before the Olympics] is always the most difficult. When you’ve had perfect preparation, you are under pressure to put the cherry on top with a good performance when you only have one chance to deliver.

“To have done that without getting anything wrong, or making mistakes in the race, that is an achievement in itself.

“To have won a bronze for myself, the team and for South Africa is a dream come true.”

It was a superb outcome in one of the greatest Olympic races as Britain’s Tom Pidcock took gold for a second time following his victory in Tokyo three years ago. Pidcock emulated France’s Julien Absalon (2004-08) by winning back-to-back Olympic mountain bike titles.

For Pidcock, it was a sensational achievement considering he suffered a puncture when leading on lap four of the eight-lap, 4.4km Elancourt Hill circuit on the outskirts of Paris.

Pidcock lost 35 seconds during a wheel change and looked to be out of it as eventual silver medallist, France’s Victor Koretzky, took the lead with Hatherly in second.

Gold medallist Thomas Pidcock of Team Great Britain (centre), silver medallist Victor Koretzky of Team France (left) and bronze medallist Alan Hatherly of Team South Africa (right) on the podium after the men’s cross country race on 29 July 2024. (Photo: Alex Broadway / Getty Images)

Pidcock, who also won the queen’s stage up L’Alpe d’Huez on the Tour de France in 2022, appeared calm as his mechanics went to work. When he rejoined the race he latched on to a group of riders and began to pace himself back to the front.

For Hatherly, it was a strange situation as he found himself in an isolated second position, drifting a few seconds behind Koretzky for much of the next two laps.

Hatherly paced himself well and when it became clear that Pidcock would soon catch him, the South African sensibly locked on to the wheel of the defending Olympic champion as they closed in on Koretzky.

The trio was locked together at the start of the final lap, having opened a 16-second gap on fourth-placed Italian Luca Braidot.

It became clear that the medals would come from the leading group. 

Given the work Pidcock had done to get back into the race, Koretzky was the marginal favourite when the bell for the final lap went – with Hatherly just about clinging on.

Early on the final lap, Koretzky launched an attack and opened up a 10-metre gap on Pidcock, with Hatherly unable to match the pace. The South African chose to ride steadily and shore up at least a bronze medal.

With only a couple of corners remaining in the race, Pidcock, who had come back to Koretzky’s wheel, launched an audacious attack on a technical section, touching wheels with the Frenchman before accelerating out of the corner and into the lead.

It was a decisive move as the Englishman surged to gold, to the boos of the 15,000-strong French crowd who witnessed Pidcock’s aggressive, but legal, move that led to victory.

For Hatherly, the bronze medal might become the crowning moment of a sterling career.

After two previous Olympic attempts, this was the first time he entered the event with a genuine chance of a medal, having sounded a warning three weeks ago by winning his first World Cup race in Les Gets in France.

Although it was a much shorter race than the Olympic contest, Hatherly beat off the likes of Mathias Flückiger and Braidot, who both featured strongly at the Olympics.

Hatherly was in the leading group from the start of the race, having learnt from his mistakes in the Tokyo Olympics. In that race, a crash in front of him forced Hatherly to run up a hill carrying his bike to extricate himself from the tangle. It ended his realistic chances of a medal three minutes into the race.

Although he battled bravely, he ended eighth in Tokyo. There were to be no such mistakes this time.

“It was a superfast and technical race, but I made a good start and managed to clear the chaos and risk factor of getting caught out in lap one,” Hatherly said.

“Then I started to position to save some energy and maybe caught out a little at that stage as the race started to happen and I had to chase quite hard to get back in the medal positions.

“Once Tom had his mechanical [puncture] and I was in second place, I was controlling the gap to Victor and I was planning on emptying the tank in the last two laps and getting back to the front.

“At that moment, Tom was actually coming back from his mechanical and we went across the gap together. Then as you saw it was a massive battle for the medals.

“I have no regrets, in the end, I left everything out there that I possibly could. It’s every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal and for me to have achieved that today is unbelievable. It will take some time to sink in.”

Hatherly never dropped below fifth in the early exchanges in Paris and managed his energy as best he could as the end approached and he held on for a well-deserved medal. DM

Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024