Park City’s Haley Batten Qualifies For Tokyo Olympics On US Cycling Team
Jun 28, 2021, 8:55 PM | Updated: Feb 12, 2023, 5:59 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Dozens of athletes with Utah ties will be competing in Tokyo in less than a month, including Park City native Haley Batten, who recently qualified as a mountain bike racer.
Many of us have pictures in old scrapbooks of riding bikes as a child. Haley Batten also has those pictures. However, her collection of bike riding photos has continued to grow as she wins race after race.
She’s come a long way from the mountain bike trails of Park City.
“No doubt in my mind, I think growing up in Park City and in Utah was such a huge opportunity for me,” said Batten.
It may also be because of her Utah upbringing that got her thinking about the Olympics.
“I think ever since I was a young girl watching the Olympics on TV, part of me always wanted to be there,” she said.
When Batten recently qualified to be on the US Cycling Team for the Tokyo Olympics, it took a little bit for her to believe it — her dream of competing in the Games was going to come true.
Park City's Haley Batten (@BattenHaley) qualified to be on the @usacycling Team for the @Tokyo2020 Olympics. She took a few minutes after training in Italy to talk to us about what it meant to make the Olympics and how she credits her upbringing in Park City. @KSL5TV at 6. pic.twitter.com/8aqaXF5nNr
— Alex Cabrero (@KSL_AlexCabrero) June 28, 2021
“I think I was just in such disbelief, and really, it took me going home to relax and being with my family to really absorb it,” she said with a laugh. “Every time I would see something that was about the Olympics, it made it real for me, that I was going to be there and be a part of it.”
Her family now lives in California, and Batten did a Zoom interview with KSL-TV for this story while she was competing in Italy, but her roots are strong in Utah.
In fact, after qualifying for the Olympics, Batten heard from her Park City High School Mountain Bike Coach who told her a lot of young women are looking up to her.
“He said they had 60 girls on their team,” Batten said in disbelief. “When I was on the team, it was maybe, that was 10 times what we had. So, to see that growth and to see so many women getting in the sport, that’s so crazy.”
It’s almost as crazy as the past year has been.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the year-long delay for the Olympics, allowed Batten to get even better.
She thinks there’s a good chance she’s better now heading into the Olympics than she would have been last year.
“I was able to develop really well and train really well over just that years’ time, and I think in 2021, for me, I just had standout results in the season,” said Batten.
Those results are enough that she’s now going to the biggest competition of her life, and she has earned the right to call herself an Olympian.
