Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Battle-scarred Jenny Rissveds won the Olympic Games women’s mountain bike gold medal on Saturday, just a week after needing 10 stitches in her knee and elbow following a training fall.
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Rissveds was in a two-way battle with Maja Wloszczowska of Poland as the bell rang for the final circuit of the rolling 4.8km course but broke her resistance with a powerful attack.
Catharine Pendrel held off Canadian teammate Emily Batty for the bronze in Rio de Janeiro. This is for sure the biggest achievement in my career.
Wloszczowska’s silver matched her finish at Beijing 2008, while reigning world champion Annika Langvad of Denmark finished in 11th place more than three minutes behind Rissveds.
The win was a first gold medal for Sweden in any Olympic cycling event since Bernt Johansson who won the men’s road race in 1976 in Montreal.
“I had a crash then the (gear) selector wasn’t working, I thought nothing’s going right here”, she said.
Sweden won its second Rio 2016 gold after swimmer Sarah Sjostrom won the 100m butterfly.
“Today I was the strongest and I got the gold medal. It is just unbelievable”, Rissveds said.
“But the day after that I went out on the course and I felt so good”. Riders gave mainly good reviews for the course before the race, though a few anxious about the heat since there were relatively few trees providing shade. Jolanda Neff of Sweden, ranked third in the world, stuck close to the pair early before falling back.
Canadian Pendrel fought her way to bronze despite experiencing technical difficulties: “I feel fantastic right now”.
“I was racing here against doctors’ recommendations but I did not want to miss the Olympics”, said the world number two, who finished 19th.
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American Lea Davison came in seventh place out of 29.
