Chloé Dygert has confirmed she will race on at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite her high-speed crash in Saturday’s time trial.
A gold medal favourite, the American was just five seconds down on eventual winner Grace Brown of Australia at the first intermediate time check. However her crash on the rain-soaked city centre course cost her significant time and confidence. She eventually finished 1:32 slower than Brown with Britain’s Anna Henderson one second faster than Dygert to take the silver medal.
Dygert sat on her bike to move through the finish area and media zone after the time trial and was clearly in pain.
US national coach Kristin Armstrong confirmed that her injury was on the same knee as her terrible crash at the 2021 World championships in Italy but was confident that Dygert would ride the women’s road race next Sunday and then anchor the US women’s team pursuit on the track.
“She's a competitor and she's not going to let much take her down. She's excited for the road race,” Armstrong said of Dygert.
“She took the day off but tomorrow she's going to go out for an easy spin and then on Wednesday we expect her back on the track. She's planning on riding the road race, she's looking forward to it.”
Dygert spoke to American television channel NBC about how her crash wrecked her chances of winning a gold medal in the time trial and her determination to bounce back in the road race.
“I could either sit here and give up or I could continue on, that's what I'm going to do,” she told NBC.
“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.”
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every event across road, mountain bike, track and BMX racing as it happens and more. Find out more.
