YOLANDE SPEEDY, Mountain Bike

Date of birth: 30 December 1976
Beijing event: Mountain bike
Previous Olympics: None
Bike: Trek Elite 9.9 SSL
To me, the Olympics Games have always been a dream goal of mine floating in the distance and seemingly unattainable! It’s definitely a dream come true and a great honour to be able to represent South Africa.
In Beijing, I reckon I’ll practice the course, mentally focus and prepare to have the race of my life… Of course I’ll squeeze in a little sight-seeing, taking the opportunity to mingle with some of the world’s best athletes and having a good party at the closing ceremony after months of hard, focused preparation.
The Olympic course is something of an unknown to me right now. It’s hard to tell just looking at the profile and images. It looks short, fast and not very technical. A very challenging and a fun course at race pace!
The gold medal favourite must be the current Olympic champion, Gunn Rita Dahle Flesjaa (NOR). She’s returning from a year of illness and is back on winning form.
Bicycling’s comments: Yolande Speedy becomes the second South African woman to compete in the mountain bike race at the Olympics. Erica Green performed solidly at Atlanta (17th) and Sydney (25th) and Speedy is likely to produce a similar performance, having been ranked as high as 25th in the world last year following a sporadic World Cup racing campaign abroad.

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