Alan Hatherly became the first South African since 1956 to win an Olympic cycling medal when he took the bronze after a thrilling men’s XCO mountain bike race in Paris on Monday.

The 28-year-old finished 11 seconds behind eventual winner Tom Pidcock of Great Britain and popular Frenchman Victor Koretzsky. The last time South Africa won a medal in Olympic cycling was when Alfred Swift won the bronze at the Melbourne Games in 1956 on the track in the 1km time trial.

Hatherly made a great start to the race leading early on before Pidcock charged through the field and split up the lead group with an early surge. With Pidcock pulling away with Koretzsky, the top two medals looked settled before Pidcock was forced to stop for a front wheel puncture.

Hatherly moved into second and chased the Frenchman before Pidcock remarkably made his way back to the South African with two laps to go. The two then caught Koretzsky and the three pulled away to decide the medals. In the final lap, it was Koretzsky who first attacked only for Pidcock to close back up. Hatherly fought back bravely but when Pidcock attacked again, the South African was left watching the battle for gold up ahead.

It’s every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal and now that I have got one, I’m still lost for words.

Pidcock eventually attacked Koretzsky through a narrow forest section of the course, almost colliding with him, and surged ahead to take the win, despite boos from the French crowd.

Hatherly went on to hold off Italian Luca Braidot, who was closing in from fourth, to take an historic medal. Hatherly leads the XCO World Cup standings in 2024, won the overall XCC World Cup title in 2022, won the E-MTB world championships in 2019 and the was world under-23 champion in 2018.

“It was an unbelievable race,” Hatherly told TeamSA a few hours later, still pinching himself. “It was both super fast and tactical. I managed to clear the charge early on and led for the first lap. The race started to happen after that and I got caught out a bit. I slipped back (to fifth) and had to chase hard to get back into the medal position.

“And when Tom had his mechanical (puncture) I moved up to second. My plan was to empty the tank the last two laps and with Tom coming back I held on to him as he made his way to the front. There was a massive battle for the medals on that last lap.

“It’s every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal and now that I have got one, I’m still lost for words. It’s going to take some time. It still hasn’t sunk in. It’s been a career goal of mine since I was a child. To have achieved it today is such a joy.

“I ticked all the boxes in terms of nothing going wrong and not making mistakes. It’s truly a dream come true for me to win a medal for Team SA at the Olympics.”

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