Swedish cyclist Jenny Rissveds beamed with joy as she received her bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, hugging a tearful Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of France on the podium of the women’s cross-country mountain bike race. This moment marked a significant comeback for Rissveds, who had faced challenging times following her gold medal victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Rissveds was only 22 when she won the Olympic gold, but the pressures that followed led to a battle with depression and an eating disorder. Within a year, she stepped away from competitive cycling, taking a two-year break to focus on her mental health and rediscover her passion for biking. She returned to racing in 2019, and since then, she has secured seven World Cup wins and finished 14th in the cross-country event at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Now I feel relieved. It feels so great to come full circle after the gold in Rio and what happened in between. It feels so damn good to be able to set such a good race. I will definitely enjoy and feel the pride of this race,” Rissveds told Eurosport. “It feels very big and I am so very happy and proud, above all.”
The competition for the silver and bronze medals intensified after Ferrand-Prévot pulled ahead on the second lap, ultimately achieving a solo victory. By the third lap, Rissveds, Austria’s Laura Stigger, and the United States’ Haley Batten were in a close chase for the bronze. The race took a dramatic turn when Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands punctured a tire, falling out of contention for the silver medal.
“For me, it wasn’t that dramatic, but there was so much going on around me all the time. It’s so ‘overcharged’ at an Olympics,” Rissveds remarked. “I just thought about doing my part and driving with what I had for the day. I had a lot of confidence and calm in me.”
As the race progressed into lap 6, Rissveds and Batten were neck-and-neck, battling for the silver medal, with a determined Pieterse closing in from behind. Batten managed to gain a slight edge on an uphill section during the final lap and maintained her lead through the feed zone, where she notably did not take a bottle.
Rissveds finished six seconds behind Batten, immediately congratulating her competitors on their performances.
Despite a protest lodged by a disappointed Pieterse regarding Batten’s failure to take a bottle in the feed zone, Rissveds dismissed the incident, focusing instead on her own triumphant return to the Olympic podium.