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French Olympic mountain biker flies over handlebars in scary crash

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•07/28/24
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© Reuters via USA TODAY Sports

It goes without saying that mountain biking is an extremely dangerous sport. On Sunday in the 2024 Olympic mountain biking competition, a rider from France (Loana Lecomte) was involved in a scary crash, flying over the handlebars and onto the rocks.

Here’s a picture of her below and the video of the crash.

Lecomte was battling for the bronze medal, before she crashed head over heels just before a section of logs. According to reports, she briefly lost consciousness. According to a spokesperson for Team France for the Olympic games, she suffered a concussion and “facial trauma”. Although they added that it would “not be serious in the end”.

On Sunday evening, pictures of Lecomte surfaced on social media. She appeared in good spirits, smiling, with a bandage on her chin, and a few other minor scrapes. Luckily for her and her fans, she is perfectly fine.

The Olympic mountain bike competition was won by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot on Sunday. She’d been chasing the elusive gold medal for over a decade. Hailey Batten of America finished in second place to earn the silver medal.

Ferrand-Prevot finished two minutes and 57 seconds ahead of Batten, who passed Rio gold medalist Jenny Rissveds on her final lap. The Swedish rider finished third for the bronze medal, after spending two years away from the sport.

Other riders also experienced difficulty in the mountain biking competition. Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands was in second place, until a flat tire made her change her wheel a few minutes later. It took her 30 seconds to change the tire, which cost her the dream of making the Olympic podium on Sunday.

More on French Olympic Mountain biker Loana Lecomte

12 months ago, Lecomte took silver behind Ferrand-Prevot at the World Championships in Glasgow.

Lecomte became a French champion in 2016, winning several races of the Coupe de France de VTT. In her second season, she won silver in cross country at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and the UEC Mountain Bike World Championships. In 2020, she won her first World Cup race, then went on to claim world and European championship titles with victory at the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships.