Idaho athletes open Olympics with two medals. One was the best U.S. finish ever

Idaho athletes started the 2024 Olympics in Paris with a bang, capturing silver and bronze medals in their first two events during the opening weekend.

Haley Batten took second place in women’s mountain bike , the best U.S. finish in the event’s history. And Chloé Dygert finished third in the women’s cycling individual time trial .

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

BATTEN TAKES SILVER MEDAL

Batten, 25, got off to a slow start Sunday, sitting in 11th place after the first lap. But she made up for the lost time and pushed her way to a record-setting place on the podium.

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 punctured a tire on the fourth lap, forcing her to limp to the repair area. She also survived a judges’ review that threatened to take away her medal.

Battling the 2016 gold medal winner for second place on the final lap, Batten took a through lane dedicated for food or drink, or fixing a mechanical problem. The fourth-place finisher filed a complaint , but judges reviewed the footage and ruled Batten broke no rule.

Instead, they fined her $565 for “failure to respect the instructions of the race organization or commissaires,” a fine that surely didn’t dampen Batten’s day.

“I knew before Tokyo that this was the race I was focusing on,” she told The Associated Press . “I’ve known 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 prepared much better to be the best I’ve ever been. For me, preparation has been in the details, studying and building every single year.”

Batten, 25, was not one of the medal favorites in Paris. Her best high-profile finish came with a bronze medal at the 2022 world championships. She finished ninth in Tokyo three years ago, sat 11th in the world standings entering the Olympics and missed the world championship last year after suffering a concussion on the same course outside Paris.

Her silver medal tops the United States’ previous best finishes in the event, bronze medals in 1996 and 2012.

DYGERT WINS BRONZE MEDAL

Dygert, the gold medal favorite, took a brutal spill early in the women’s individual time trial Saturday. But the reigning world champ climbed back up and rallied to capture the bronze medal in Paris.

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

The third-place finish earned Dygert, 27, her third Olympic medal. She won a silver in team pursuit in 2016 and a bronze in team pursuit in 2021. But as she hobbled from interview to interview after the race, she said missing out on the gold stung.

“I could either sit here and give up, or I could continue on. That’s what I’m going to do,” she told NBC after the race. “I could sit here and pout all day long. Of course I’m mad. We don’t train to lose. We don’t train to stand on any other step but the top step. I’m really hurt.

“But I’m just trusting God’s plan and God’s process here and taking all the strength that he’s giving me to continue on. I’m gonna use that going into Sunday’s race.”

Dygert will also compete in the women’s road race Aug. 4 and in team pursuit, which starts its qualification round Aug. 6. She told Indianapolis’ WTHR on Sunday , “I’m all systems go for this weekend.”

The Indiana native crashed early in Saturday’s race. She took a left turn and slipped as the 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 really do enjoy these conditions,” Dygert told USA Today . “I think if we were in Britain, these (conditions) would be absolutely perfect. The roads are better to take corners on. Whereas when we’re in Spain, France or Italy, I feel it’s a little more icy.

“I think it definitely factors into the race itself, and it totally changed the ballgame today. But for me, I enjoy these conditions.”