Mountain biking has been a staple of the Summer Olympics since Atlanta 1996 and Paris 2024 marks its eighth appearance at the Olympic Games. This year, the competition for gold is the fiercest it's ever been. From reigning Olympic champions looking to defend their crowns to legends of the sport where a gold medal would complete a glittering career, here are the favourites for Mountain Biking medals.
Mountain Biking is one of the most exhilarating sports to watch at the Olympic Games.
Riders are pitted against a technically testing off-road course where bike handling skills are as important as raw power, and the racing is intense from the off.
Introduced to the Olympic Games at Atlanta 1996, the sport has become an Olympics staple. Paris 2024 is the eighth time the gold medal will be contested in the Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) Mountain Biking discipline.
The Élancourt XCO course 30km southwest of the French capital pits riders against a 4.4km track packed with leg-shredding climbs and technical features like rock gardens and log drops.
At last September’s test event, France’s Victor Koretzky and Loana Lecomte were victorious in the men’s and women’s elite races respectively. But a home win for the 15,000 fans expected to line the course isn’t guaranteed. From previous Olympic champions looking to add another gold medal to their collection to rising stars who are aiming to stand at the top of the podium in their Olympic Games debut, here are the favourites for the Paris 2024 Olympics Mountain Biking.
WOMEN
Alessandra Keller (Switzerland)
The 28-year-old Swiss rider is making her Olympics debut but is one of the stand-out favourites after an impressive start to the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series that sees her top of the overall standings. While she hasn’t finished first at a UCI XCO World Cup this year, an impressive collection of podium finishes in all but the season opener in Mairiporã, Brazil, suggest she’s in contention for a medal at a minimum.
Puck Pietrse (Netherlands)
The Dutch phenom might only be 22, but her performances since stepping up to the elite class in 2023 show she can mix it with the best. The 2023 XCO overall winner of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series spent the early part of the 2024 season on the road but has resumed her winning ways since returning to mountain biking in May – including the European championships and the final UCI XCO World Cup before the Olympics in Les Gets, Haute-Savoie, France.
Haley Batten (USA)
The 25-year-old finished a respectable 9th at Tokyo 2020 but has come on leaps and bounds in the intervening three years, finishing fourth in the 2023 test event and recording her first UCI XCO World Cup win in April in Araxá, Brazil in round 2 of the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series. The American hasn’t finished outside the top 10 in any race she’s entered this year, although didn’t take part in the UCI XCO World Cup in Crans-Montana, Switzerland due to a minor injury and sat out the last round in Les Gets, Haute-Savoie, France to focus solely on Paris 2024.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France)
The French icon and reigning UCI XCO World Champion has won all there is in mountain biking, but the Olympics has alluded her – eighth (London 2012) her best finish in her three previous attempts. The 32-year-old will be hoping it’s fourth time lucky in front of a home crowd, and if her season so far as anything to go by – where she has won all but one XCO race she’s entered, including two UCI XCO World Cups – then it will take a lot to stop her. It’s also her final season in mountain biking before she makes the switch to road, and gold in Paris would be a fitting finalé to a stellar off-road career.
Others to watch: Evie Richards (Great Britain), Jenny Rissveds (Sweden), Sina Frei (Switzerland)
MEN
Tom Pidcock (Great Britain)
The reigning Olympic champion was the clear favourite for the men’s gold medal at Paris 2024 having won both of the UCI XCO World Cups he has entered this year, but his defence is now looking less certain. The 24-year-old multi-discipline star was competing at the Tour de France but had to withdraw before stage 14 after testing positive for Covid-19. With only two weeks between his diagnosis and the Olympics, it’s unsure how fit the British rider will be when he takes to the start line.
Nino Schurter (Switzerland)
The greatest of all time will be taking part in his fifth Olympics at Paris 2024, but the 38-year-old isn’t there to make up the numbers. The nine-time world champion won the 2023 UCI XCO World Cup overall title (the first one under the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series umbrella) and has been in the mix during his final season in the sport – winning in Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy. He already has a full suite of Olympic medals, including gold at Rio 2016, but few would bet against him adding to his collection.
Alan Hatherly (South Africa)
Another rider with extensive Olympic experience, this will be Hatherly’s third Olympic Games. The South African’s eighth in Tokyo 2020 was his best result to date, but the 28-year-old should be competing for a podium spot if his form this year is anything to go by. He currently sits at the top of the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series XCO overall standings and won the most recent UCI XCO World Cup in Les Gets, Haute-Savoie, France.
Victor Koretzky (France)
Koretzky had an explosive start to the 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series season with back-to-back second places in Brazil (Mairiporã and Araxá), but after suffering with Covid and crashes and skipping the last two UCI World Cups, it’s not certain that he’s fully recovered and racing fit. The 29-year-old will have the backing of a partisan home crowd as he takes to the course in Élancourt though and knows what it takes to win in the Parisian suburbs having finished first at the 2023 test event.
Others to watch
Christopher Blevins (USA), Riley Amos (USA), Simon Andreassen (Denmark)
The Paris 2024 Olympics women’s mountain bike event starts at 12:10 UK time on Sunday, July 28, while the men’s will be decided from 12:10 UK time on Monday, July 29.
