PARIS – Getting to the start line represented a victory for Chloe Dygert. She elaborated on how grateful she was to be here.
On the other hand, the 27-year-old Brownsburg cyclist didn’t get to be who she is by aiming for medals that are not gold.
So even as she hobbled from station to station for post-race interviews, after overcoming a crash to win a third Olympic medal, Dygert was ready to get back on the bike.
“I don’t show up to a race to lose,” she said after taking bronze in the individual time trial at the Paris Olympics. “I’m not going to be a sore loser. Everybody shows up to win. Everyone here who’s not sitting on that top step is going to say the same thing.
“We want to win. We don’t want to lose. We’re going to be appreciative and supportive to all the riders. I’ve just got to get better so the next time I show up, I can be on that top step.”
Grace Brown, a 32-year-old Australian who recently announced this would be her last season, was an emphatic gold medalist. She rode the rain-slickened, 32.4-kilometer course (20.13 miles) in 39 minutes, 38.24 seconds for a 91-second victory.
Great Britain’s Anna Henderson took the silver medal in 41:09.83. Dygert was third in 4:10.70, less than a second from silver.
Dygert has twice been world champion in this event, winning by a record 92 seconds in 2019 and by six seconds (over Brown) in 2023.
Dygert’s crash and grisly thigh injury at the 2020 World Championships in Italy has been widely chronicled, and it is something that still affects her riding. In this season, her training was interrupted first by an Achilles injury and later by a bout of COVID-19.
