PARK CITY, Utah — From "Pinecone" to "Crest" and "Armstrong," Haley Batten still remembers all her favorite Park City trails.
“I could just take my bike after school, just go into these mountains and ride forever and ever, and I just felt so independent and strong and capable,” she said. “When I first started racing, it was really just, like, me and the guys, like on so many sidelines, it was me and just a bunch of guys. I was lucky because my family always taught me that I belonged there, and I never even questioned it.”
Her mentors and coaches were not surprised to see her make it to the Olympics and win a silver medal this summer, earning Team USA’s best-ever mountain biking finish.
“She would ride straight uphill and be chatting away,” said Julie Minahan, the program manager for Young Riders. “She was just in love with the sport, super dedicated right from day one, right when she started.”
“She would have her own training plan as a 9th grader, but she would still come to all the practices and she would ride with some of our slowest riders,” added Pete Stoughton, the director and head coach of the Park City High School mountain bike team.
Although Batten no longer lives in Park City, she says Utah will always be her home.
“It is my home,” said Batten. “It's all my people that helped make this possible, so to give back to that community.”
The Olympian came back to Park City before going to Paris and rode with a few young girls on her old high school team.
“That's part of her legacy, is that she's helping make more young girls want to be a part of the sport,” said Stoughton.
Batten hopes her success can inspire change.
“I just hope more places and more people get on bikes and create the infrastructure for not just trails, but also bike paths and safe places for people to ride and commute to school,” she said.
Paris is not the end of the road.
“The next one's mine,” said Batten. “I'm going for gold in L.A.”
