American cyclist Chloe Dygert put years of traumatic injuries behind her to win her third Olympic medal today at the Paris Olympics, surviving a crash in rainy conditions.
The 27-year-old from Colorado Springs won bronze in the women’s individual time trial on a rain-slick course as the cycling race got underway in Paris.
Chloe, whose partner Alex is the son of cycling legend Eddie Merckx, completed the course in 41:10.70, behind Australia’s gold medal-winning Grace Brown in a time of 39:38.24. Britain’s Anna Henderson took silver in 41:09.38.
It is the third medal in a series of Olympic Games for Chloe, who won silver at the 2016 Rio Games and bronze in Tokyo, both in the team pursuit.
Dygert admitted there were “moments” in recent years when she considered quitting, following a serious leg injury in 2020.
American cyclist Chloe Dygert won bronze in the time trial on Saturday – her third Olympic medal
Dygert completed the course in 41:10.70, behind gold medalist Grace Brown of Australia (C)
She said: ‘What I’ve had to go through physically because of the injury itself, what I’ve had to go through mentally – and all that personal stuff that I won’t go into – sometimes it didn’t matter in my life.
“I didn’t care if I was alive. I didn’t care about things. People don’t see it and they don’t understand it, and I can say the same thing – I see people with injuries and things that happen, and I can’t understand what they’re going through.”
On Saturday she celebrated her bronze medal and said she was happy about the rain that caused chaos during the Olympic Games in Paris.
She said, ‘I like this weather, I like this temperature, so I can’t complain too much.’
“The crowd was so loud that I really struggled to hear my radio. I did hear the first time control. I was five seconds behind then. The first three minutes I knew my legs weren’t great, so I was a bit worried.
‘I knew it was going to be a bit downhill on the way back and I thought I could use that to my advantage, but then I had a little crash and I don’t know how much that really impacted me.
She blamed herself for the crash, adding: ‘It was me. I just didn’t set it up right, I just slid into it, it was just my fault. I should have taken it a bit better.
“It was tough. Luckily I had a bit of adrenaline in me, but I felt it straight away. I hit my leg against my frame, so the spasms and things were going on in the leg.
Dygert admitted she considered quitting in 2020 after a devastating leg injury
“I noticed there were times where I lost a little bit of power. Again, that’s no excuse to finish third.”
Speaking about the ups and downs of the past four years, she said: ‘I’m really happy to be here. I’m really grateful to be here. It’s been a long road to get back to the Olympics, so I’m just really grateful. This has just been a true blessing and (I’m) grateful for all the support and everyone to get me over that line.’
‘I’m not going to be a bad loser, but everyone comes to win and everyone here who isn’t on the top step will probably say the same thing.
“We want to win. We don’t want to lose, but you know, we’ll be grateful and support all the riders. That’s the way it is, one rider will be better than the other on the day, that’s the way it is. I just have to get better.”