San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Courtney zeroes in on Tokyo goal: win gold
For Olympians, the pandemic was a full stop. A derailment.
Like hitting a rock on Mount Tam’s Hoo Koo E Koo trail and flying over the handlebars of your mountain bike.
“Everyone hit stop and had to recalibrate,” said Jim Miller, the head of sport performance for USA Cycling. “It was a hard reset, like holding down the big power button on your computer.”
But the reboot is complete. Everyone is back up and ready to go. Especially Miller’s star mountain biker, Kate Courtney. The Marin County native, who was born in the same spot as her sport — on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais — is a year older, a bit wiser, and ready to compete.
“I’m using a lot of the skills I learned in 2020 — keeping my focus, being resilient, using the challenges,” Courtney, 25, said recently. “All of those skills are really helping me to stay on track and keep my goal in mind.”
Courtney’s goal is gold in Olympic mountain biking. The 2018 world champion is considered a strong contender for the top of the podium, a place no American has reached (the U.S. women won bronze in Atlanta and London; the U.S. men have never medaled).
“Absolutely, she has podium potential,” said Miller, who knows it when he sees it. In his previous stint at USA Cycling, Miller led cyclists to 14 Olympic medals, including three golds by Kristin Armstrong.
Courtney’s ability to focus, even through challenges, is a personal trademark. She turned professional at 18, the year she graduated from BransonRoss. She raced competitively while earning a degree in human biology from Stanford.
“She’s always been a very deter
mined, energetic and powerful person,” said her mother, Maggie Courtney.
When Kate was as young as 3, every evening, Maggie would place a project next to her place at the breakfast table: a puzzle, an art project, a new Lego set. That way, when Kate got up, she had an activity to do — and Maggie might get a few more minutes of sleep.
“She sets a goal and then goes about accomplishing that goal,” Maggie said. “She holds herself to a very high standard. But it’s not robotic. It’s not torture. She brings a real sense of joy and pleasure to her pursuits.”
Courtney found joy and pleasure in a pandemic year that interrupted a frenetic schedule that she had been on since high school. She adopted a puppy; Monte has gained a measure of fame as Courtney’s trail companion in her Instagram posts. Last February she became engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Will Patterson.
She also launched a scholarship program, Sparkle On, for high school seniors who have raced in the National Interscholastic Cycling Association and want to continue mountain bike racing in college. Four seniors will receive $10,000 each; Courtney learned the importance of support and mentorship by racing on Stanford’s club team.
“Of course, a year ago, I would rather everything went on as planned,” Courtney said. “But in a lot of ways the pandemic helped me become a better athlete and a more balanced person. It allowed me to develop a much more centered mindset.”
“In a lot of ways the pandemic helped me become a better athlete and a more balanced person. It allowed me to develop a much more centered mindset.”
Kate Courtney, Olympic cyclist
The year forced a pause that Courtney had never taken. As a child, she started mountain biking on a tandem bike with her father, Tom. (“She took my seat,” Maggie, who had been the original partner on the tandem, said with a laugh.) Growing up, Kate skiraced and jumped horses and ran cross country; she originally started mountain biking only as crosstraining for running. But she fell in love with the sport.
By her junior year of high school, she was fully committed to mountain biking and racing internationally. She went to Stanford but continued racing professionally and still managed to graduate in four years.
Then came a fulltime racing career, a world championship and an Olympic berth.
“It was fast and furious,” Maggie said. “I think this past year she was finally able to catch up with herself.”
Courtney had an abbreviated fall season in Europe but was on a normal racing schedule this spring. She and Miller were pleased with her results.
“Her level is really high,” Miller said. “She is very consistent. … I think she’s exceptional.”
Courtney did have one setback this spring. After a big crash in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic, Courtney learned she had a fracture in her ulna. She has been wearing a splint while it heals and has been doing more road cycling to keep down the vibrations. But the break is expected to be fully healed before the Tokyo Games.
“As my coach said, ‘If it was easy, I would be worried,’ ” Courtney said. “The Olympics involves a lot of chaos. There always seems to be a dramatic, circuitous route to success.”
And never has the route been more circuitous than for these pandemic Olympics. Courtney will head to Italy for a training camp before the Games. Because of COVID restrictions, Maggie and Tom, and her brother and fiance, will not be able to make the trip to Japan to see her compete on July 27.
“Of course, I’m super disappointed that we’re not going to be able to be there,” Maggie said. “But this has been a very long process. I’m so happy it’s actually going to happen.”
The family will gather to watch the race together. Maggie expects the viewing to be a “nervewracking and emotional” experience, watching her driven and focused daughter trying to make a dream come true.
“Really, there’s no stopping that Kate Courtney,” her mother said. “Just get on the train.
“Because it’s going to be a wild ride.”