Idaho’s Haley Batten and Chloé Dygert Win Olympic Medals

Athletes from Idaho started the 2024 Paris Olympics with a bang, winning silver and bronze in their first two events during the opening weekend.

Haley Batten took second in the women’s mountain bike, the best American performance in the event’s history. And Chloé Dygert took third in the women’s individual time trial.

Both are coached by Kristin Armstrong, a three-time gold medalist, and train in the Boise area.

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BATTEN GETS SILVER MEDAL

Batten, 25, started slowly on Sunday and was in 11th place after the first round. But she made up for lost time and worked her way to a record podium finish.

Batten clocked a time of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 59 seconds, finishing 2:57 behind France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in an eventful race. Batten broke a wheel and suffered a flat tire on the fourth lap, forcing her to limp to the repair area. She also survived a judge’s assessment that threatened to strip her of her medal.

In a battle with the 2016 gold medalist for second place in the final round, Batten took a thoroughfare reserved for food or drink, or for dealing with a mechanical problem. The fourth-place finisher filed a complaint, but the judges reviewed the footage and found that Batten had not broken any rules.

Instead, they fined her $565 for “failing to comply with the instructions of the race organization or officials,” a fine that certainly didn’t spoil Batten’s day.

“I knew before Tokyo that this was the race I was focused on,” she told the Associated Press. “I knew for a long time that I could be good here and Tokyo was — I wanted to be on the podium there, but I wasn’t quite ready to be honest.

“I have prepared much better to be the best I have ever been. For me, preparation is in the details, studying and building up every year.”

Batten, 25, was not a medal favorite in Paris. Her best senior performance was a bronze medal at the 2022 world championships. She finished ninth in Tokyo three years ago, was ranked 11th in the world going into the Olympics and missed last year’s world championships after suffering a concussion on the same course outside Paris.

Her silver medal improves on the United States’ best performance in the discipline, with bronze medals in 1996 and 2012.

DYGERT WINS BRONZE MEDAL

Dygert, the gold medal favorite, suffered a brutal fall in the women’s time trial on Saturday. But the reigning world champion climbed back up and recovered to take the bronze medal in Paris.

Dygert completed the 20-mile race in 41:10.70, 0.87 seconds behind silver medalist and 1:32 behind gold medalist, Australia’s Grace Brown.

Third place gives Dygert, 27, her third Olympic medal. She won silver in the team pursuit in 2016 and bronze in the team pursuit in 2021. But as she hobbled from interview to interview after the race, she said missing out on gold hurt.

“I can sit here and give up, or I can keep going. That’s what I’m going to do,” she told NBC after the race. “I can sit here all day and sulk. Of course I’m angry. We don’t train to lose. We don’t train to be on any step other than the top step. I’m really injured.

“But I’m just trusting in God’s plan and God’s process here and using all the strength He gives me to keep going. I’m going to use that for Sunday’s race.”

Dygert will also compete in the women’s road race on Aug. 4 and the team pursuit, which begins qualifying on Aug. 6. “I’m totally ready for this weekend,” she told Indianapolis’ WTHR on Sunday.

The Indiana native crashed early in Saturday’s race. She took a left turn and slid as the road surface turned to cobblestones, one of several crashes as rain soaked the early events in Paris. But she didn’t blame the weather.

“It just didn’t work out for me today, but I’m really enjoying these conditions,” Dygert told USA Today. “I think if we were in Britain, these (conditions) would be absolutely perfect. The roads are better for cornering. Whereas I feel like in Spain, France or Italy, it’s a little icier.

“I think it definitely plays a part in the race itself, and it completely changed the game today. But I’m enjoying these conditions.”