PARIS — Becoming an Olympian is hard enough, but harder still when you’ve taken a few spills along the way. Erin Attwell has — literally. The Victoria cyclist missed the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, after suffering a knee injury when hit by a car while cycling on McKenzie Avenue in September only to recover from that and then break her collarbone in training.
“It could have been much worse and kept me out of the Olympics,” said Attwell.
But it didn’t. It has been a determined and sternly pursued road to recovery as Attwell joined fellow Victoria rider Sarah Van Dam on the Canadian women’s team pursuit squad at the 2024 Paris Olympics Games.
The world No. 5-ranked foursome of Attwell, Van Dam, Maggie Coles-Lyster of Maple Ridge and Ariane Bonhomme of Gatineau, Que., opened Tuesday in the Olympics at Le Vélodrome National in de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and qualified eighth for Wednesday’s playoff rounds, three spots below their world ranking, but with an excuse.
Actually, several of them. A serious bout of food poisoning has laid the team low this week, according to Cyclingnews. To top it off, Games track officials mistakenly rang the last-lap bell at the wrong time to totally confound the Canadian side and affect its performance Tuesday.
But the Canadian foursome managed to stay in the hunt for the bronze medal heading into Wednesday. The top-four placers in Tuesday’s qualifying round — New Zealand, USA, Great Britain and Italy — will ride for the gold and silver medals.
“Time is everything at this point,” said Attwell, a silver medallist in the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games.
“We managed a huge personal best at the last Nations Cup, which qualified us fifth for the Olympics, with a 4:10. It will probably take a sub 4:10. We are looking for a 4:06 or 4:07 time and hoping that will be enough to get us the bronze medal. It’s a very fast velodrome. It was good to get it [opening day Tuesday] out of the way, we were all pretty nervous heading into it and just needed to get through this and shake out the cobwebs and turbulence we’ve had over the last few days. We faced a lot of adversity this week, so getting through and battling in rounds [Wednesday], I think we’re all pleased with that. It doesn’t matter how [Tuesday’s] ride went, no one should count us out.”
Attwell and Van Dam got their starts in cycling with the Victoria Tripleshot team.
“Sarah and I make up 50 per cent of the team and we come from Tripleshot. That says how amazing the program has been,” said Attwell.
“We both started in the Fast Track [kids’ program] together at the 1994 Commonwealth Games legacy Juan de Fuca Velodrome. We honestly couldn’t have done it without that program. It’s amazing how many names have come out from the Island from that velodrome.”
Bonhomme has joined this merry band of cyclists and spends much of her time training on the Island: “Erin and I ride together quite a bit. I love riding the gravel logging roads up-Island, especially Butler Main, and also the Great Trail route from Sooke to Shawnigan Lake. It’s pretty special. We are velodrome riders but the Island trails helped us keep the fun up as we prepared for Paris.”
But nothing could prepare the team for what happened to them this week, yet the riders are non plussed.
“We’re pretty excited. Anything is possible,” said Bonhomme.
“The Olympics are so different. Everybody brings their ‘A’ game. We definitely believe we can achieve the podium. But we know it’s going to be an absolute dog fight, so we have to execute so well. We know what we can do. We know how to execute under pressure. We have all the tools it takes to get on the podium. We just have to do it.”
While the three sa国际传媒 riders Attwell, Van Dam and Coles-Lyster are Olympic rookies, Bonhomme rode in the pandemic-affected and fan-less 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed to 2021.
“In Tokyo, it was crickets,” said Bonhomme. “There was maybe 20 people allowed in the stands. I’m so excited to have the atmosphere [in Paris]. It makes it a true Olympic Games experience.”
Attwell and Van Dam will be pedalling Wednesday for a fourth medal by Island or Island-based athletes at the Paris Olympic Games, following the gold medal won by hammer-thrower Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo and silver medals by the Langford-based women’s rugby sevens team and the North Cowichan-based women’s rowing eight.
