COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – On Thursday, USA Cycling announced the men’s and women’s mountain bike, road, and track Olympic long teams, naming the initial lists of athletes from which the final roster for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be selected next summer. Athletes are still eligible to make the Olympic long teams until May 2021.
Announced during a livestream hosted by Steve Schlanger, long-time NBC Cycling and Olympics announcer, the 38-person team was presented with the help of special guest actor, director, and Honorary Olympic Cycling Team Captain, Patrick Dempsey and USA Cycling’s Chief of Sport Performance, Jim Miller. The announcement can be seen below.
The women’s mountain bike long team includes six automatic nominations. Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif.; Scott-SRAM Racing) will be the only candidate of the Olympic long team for mountain bike with an automatic place on the final team due to her fifth place at the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, CAN. Right now, the women are sitting second as a Nation in the Olympic Qualification Rankings. If they keep this ranking in 2021, two additional members of the women’s long team will join Courtney in Tokyo. The men’s mountain bike long team includes two discretionary nominations. With the men’s current Nation ranking, they will only have one member named to the final Olympic Team.
Joining Courtney in Tokyo will be Chloé Dygert (Brownsburg, Ind.; TWENTY20 Cycling), who cemented her spot on the women’s road team with a decisive win in the Elite Women’s Time Trial at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, GBR. Dygert will be joined by eight additional teammates on the women’s road Olympic long team. Like the women’s mountain bike team, all members of the road team meet the standard for the automatic qualification.
“Obviously the delay of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was a challenge, but we will be sending an even stronger team next summer and we could not be more excited,” said Rob DeMartini, USA Cycling’s President and CEO. “It is so inspiring to see these men and women who have worked their whole lives for this moment and to get one step closer to their Olympic dreams.”
On the men’s side for road, seven athletes were named to the team. Of those seven, two athletes were automatic nominations, with the remaining athletes nominated as discretionary choices by coaches based on their overall accumulative international results.
The women’s track long team includes nine automatic nominations. Two of those team members are Olympic Games Rio 2016 Silver Medalists Dygert and Jennifer Valente (San Diego, Calif.; TWENTY20 Cycling). The Women’s Team Pursuit made the automatic nomination due to their recent UCI Track World Championship win with the squad of Dygert, Valente, Emma White (Albany, N.Y.; Rally Cycling), Lily Williams (Asheville, N.C.; Rally Cycling).
On the men’s side, three athletes were named to the team with only one of them being an automatic nomination. Two of these athletes were discretionary nominations based on their World Cup and World Championship results.
“Being able to define our initial Olympic long team 13-months before the Olympic Games is a first for us,” said Jeff Pierce, USA Cycling’s Director of Elite Athletics. “Next June will be another defining moment where we will be able to announce the official team headed to Tokyo for Mountain Bike, Road, Track, BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle.”
Haley Batten (Park City, Utah; Specialized Factory Racing)*
Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif.; SCOTT/ SRAM Racing)*
Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt.; TWENTY20 Cycling)*
Hannah Finchamp (Altadena, Calif.; Orange Seal Off-Road Team)*
Erin Huck (Boulder, Colo.; Stages Cycling-Scott)*
Chloe Woodruff (Prescott, Ariz.; Stan's-Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis)*
Christopher Blevins (Durango, Colo.; Specialized Factory Racing)
Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah; Stan's-Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis)
Chloe Dygert (Brownsburg, Ind.; TWENTY20 Cycling)*
Krista Doebel-Hickok (Marina del Rey, Calif.; Rally Cycling)*
Kristen Faulkner (Homer, Alaska; Team TIBCO Silicon Valley Bank)* - added in 2021
Katie Hall (Mercer Island, Wash.; Boels–Dolmans)*
Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif.; Cogeas Mettler Cycling)*
Coryn Rivera (Huntington Beach, Calif.; Team Sunweb)*
Lauren Stephens (Mesquite, Texas; Team TIBCO Silicon Valley Bank)*
Leah Thomas (Santa Clara, Calif.; Bigla Katusha)*
Tayler Wiles (Murray, Utah; Trek-Segafredo)*
Ruth Winder (Lafayette, Calif.; Trek-Segafredo)*
Lawson Craddock (Houston, Texas; EF Pro Cycling)
Ian Garrison (Decatur, Ga; Deceuninck – Quick-Step)*
Alex Howes (Nederland, Colo.; EF Pro Cycling)*
Sepp Kuss (Durango, Colo.; Team Jumbo Visma)
Brandon McNulty (Phoenix, Ariz.; UAE Team Emirates)
Neilson Powless (Roseville, Calif.; EF Pro Cycling)
Tejay van Garderen (Aspen, Colo.; EF Pro Cycling)
Christina Birch (Gilbert, Ariz.)*
Chloe Dygert (Brownsburg, Ind.; TWENTY20 Cycling)*
Maddie Godby (Colorado Springs, Colo.)*
Megan Jastrab (Apple Valley, Calif.; Rally Cycling)*
Mandy Marquardt (Allentown, Pa.; Team Novo Nordisk)*
Kendall Ryan (Los Angeles, Calif.; Team TIBCO Silicon Valley Bank)*
Jennifer Valente (San Diego, Calif.; TWENTY20 Cycling)*
Emma White (Albany, N.Y.; Rally Cycling)*
Lily Williams (Asheville, N.C.; Rally Cycling)*
Adrian Hegvary (Asheville, N.C.)
Daniel Holloway (Boulder, Colo.; Texas Roadhouse Cycling Team)
Gavin Hoover (Manhattan Beach, Calif.; Elevate-Webiplex Pro Cycling)*
*Denotes an automatic nomination to the long team
For more information on the team selection criteria, click here.
