Haley Batten qualifies for the 2020 Olympic Mountain Bike Team

Haley Batten places 9th in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, pictured here in a Red Bull race in Europe. Photo: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic — Park City native, Haley Batten came in second place in the UCI XCO World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě. This qualified her for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Mountain Bike Team.

The 22-year-old, who now resides in Santa Cruz, California, has quickly become a dominant athlete in the Elite Women’s category. She finished third at the Albstadt XCO World Cup.

In Sunday’s XCO World Cup, Batten rode to a silver medal, 1 minute and 29 seconds behind race winner and U23 World Champion Loana Lecomte (France). Erin Huck (Estes Park, Colo.) was the next best American, finishing in 16th.

Batten automatically qualifies for the Olympic Team after being the only U.S. rider to finish in the Top-8 at the Nové Město XCO World Cup. Batten is one of the youngest riders to make the U.S. Olympic Mountain Bike Team. She joins Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif.) as one of the two women to automatically qualify for the mountain bike team headed to Tokyo. That leaves one more starting position for the USA, which the discretionary selection criteria will determine.

The U.S. men have earned a single starting position leaving the discretionary selection between Christopher Blevins (Durango, Colo.) and Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah). USA Cycling will announce the final Olympic Team on June 10th.