Park City Olympic medalist Haley Batten finishes sixth at home World Cup

Batten raced before a hometown crowd at Soldier Hollow as the venue hosted an international mountain bike competition.

MIDWAY, Utah — The World Cup mountain bike tour made a stop in Utah over the weekend, bringing international competition to Soldier Hollow and giving Park City athlete and 2024 Paris Olympics silver medalist Haley Batten a chance to race close to home.

Riders came from around the world, including New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Czechia, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Slovenia and Norway.

Batten placed sixth in the elite women’s cross-country Olympic race, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 17 minutes, 8 seconds. She finished 1 minute, 17 seconds behind the winner after six laps around the Soldier Hollow course.

Batten also competed in the elite women’s cross-country short track race earlier in the weekend, finishing 14th.

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“Thank you UTAH, it is a dream to race a World Cup at home,” Batten wrote on social media following the event. “I truly never thought this would happen in my career and I feel so grateful for this opportunity.”

“We’re over the moon with the outcome of this exciting event,” Callum Clark, interim CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, told TownLift trackside. The foundation operates Soldier Hollow. “The mountain biking community in the Mountain West came out in force. It’s been absolutely fantastic.”

“Thank you UTAH, it is a dream to race a World Cup at home,” Batten wrote on social media. “I truly never thought this would happen in my career and I feel so grateful for this opportunity.”

The event also had strong Park City ties beyond Batten.

Hap Seliga, president and CEO of SCOTT Sports and a Park City resident, has spent years at Soldier Hollow with his wife watching their three sons compete in Nordic combined skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Seliga told TownLift. “It’s so great to see this World Cup come to Utah.”

Seliga said the international competition and strong performances from American riders made the weekend particularly memorable.

“It’s been unbelievable to see the Americans performing in such a strong and smart way all weekend and great to watch all the international competition,” he said.

Course crews also had the unusual job of transforming terrain typically used for smooth Nordic skiing into a mountain bike course designed for technical racing.

View the race start below as the elite women begin the climb up the first hill.

RESULTS:

Makena Kellerman of the United States placed second in the women’s under-23 cross-country short track race, finishing behind a Canadian rider and ahead of a rider from the Netherlands. Other American women finished 11th, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 27th.

In the men’s under-23 race, a Swiss rider took first, with riders from Denmark finishing second and third. American riders finished 12th, 14th, 23rd and 27th.

The elite women’s cross-country short track podium included a rider from Italy followed by two Swiss riders. Americans finished 11th, 14th, 18th and 30th.

In the elite men’s cross-country short track race, riders from New Zealand, France and Germany took the top three spots. American riders finished 12th, 17th and 29th.

Italy’s Martina Berta won the elite women’s cross-country Olympic race. American Gwendalyn Gibson finished second, followed by a Swiss rider in third. Other Americans finished fourth, sixth and 18th.

The elite men’s cross-country Olympic race was won by a Chilean rider, followed by riders from Canada and France. Americans finished sixth, eighth, 25th and 28th.

See the start of the final lap for the elite women below.

Among the friends and family gathered in Haley Batten shirts was her father, Patrick Batten. Rather than watching from the VIP area, he stood among the crowd lining the course.

During an interview with TownLift, a T-shirt cannon sent a shirt in his direction. Batten caught it and handed it to a nearby teenager who had also been trying to catch one.

His daughter graduated from Park City High School and competed on the school’s mountain bike team before rising through the international ranks.

“It’s really such a huge deal to be able to have a big bike race here,” Patrick Batten told TownLift. “We haven’t had one since the early 2000s.”

He said the last time Haley competed at Soldier Hollow was in a regional Nordic ski race.

“It’s amazing that like 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 fans have come out today to cheer on Haley and all these great athletes,” he said. “Haley’s only at home these days less than three months a year, so I get to see her then, and then I try to sometimes get over to Europe to watch a couple of her races.”

Below, watch the finish of the elite women’s race, including the close battle for third place as shown on the venue’s big screen.

Also below is an interview with women’s race winner Martina Berta of Italy.

Batten donated one of her bikes, valued at $15,000, to Team Soldier Hollow to help raise money for local youth programming.