Pan American Success Inches U.S. Men Closer To Securing Second Olympics MTB Spot
Blevins' and Amos' points haul in Utah has U.S. Men in fifth with two weeks to go
Team USA is one step closer to securing the maximum start spots for the mountain bike discipline at the Paris Olympics. This past weekend’s dominating performance at the Pan-American MTB Championships in Midway, Utah, locked in two spots for the women1 and helped shore up the second spot for the men.
Before Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) won the XCC and U23 XCO Pan-American Championships and Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) won the elite XCO Championship and placed second in the XCC, the U.S. men were ranked seventh in UCI’s Olympic Qualification Ranking, just a little over 400 points away from falling outside the top eight.
As discussed in a previous post, the first eight nations earn two start spots at the Paris Olympics. The following nine nations in the rankings earn only one spot. If the games were held today, and the U.S. men somehow only had one spot, that spot would go to Amos, whose two U23 World Cup wins fulfilled the requirement for an automatic qualification under USA Cycling’s Olympic qualification criteria.
If Blevins finishes in the top five at the Nove Mesto XCO World Cup, he will leapfrog Amos and be the top automatic qualifier. If Blevins finishes outside the top five, he will more than meet the qualification standard under the discretionary criteria but would not make the team if only one spot exists.
The Nove Mesto elite XCO races are on May 26. That date is also the last day of the Olympic qualification period. Nations will announce their Olympic athletes on May 27.
The good news is that, as of this morning, the U.S. is now ranked fifth with a 736-point lead over Brazil in ninth. Blevins scored 150 points for the Pan-Am XCO win and 65 for the XCC second place. Amos scored 75 points for the U23 XCO win and 70 for the XCC elite win. The U.S. also earned 100 points for winning the Pan-American mixed-relay event2.
Looking ahead, we have 12 days left until the qualification period ends. In addition to the Nove Mesto World Cup, here are the other remaining events in which points are available.
And here are the point allocations for each XCO race category:
XCC World Cup Points:
It may be possible for the U.S. to lose their top eight spot, but trying to devise a scenario where multiple nations score enough points to drop the U.S. out of contention this late into the qualification period is above my computational abilities. Put differently, a mathematical possibility could exist in which the U.S. only has one Olympic spot, but that coming to fruition is highly unlikely.
As of today, the outlook is good for the U.S. to bring a full complement of MTB athletes to the Olympics.
Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) and Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) secured their Olympic spots after the first two rounds of the World Cup as discussed, here. So, this article focuses on the men whose Olympic status still needs to be determined.
There was some confusion at the Pan-American Championships on whether points would be awarded for the mixed relay because not enough teams registered. Ultimately, the requisite number of nations participated to make the event eligible for UCI points, and the U.S. earned 100 for winning the event.