KAMLOOPS — As Catharine Pendrel made her way through the Rio De Janerio International Airport, with her newly-earned bronze medal around her neck, she still couldn’t quite believe what happened on Saturday, when the Kamloops native won her first Olympic her in mountain biking.
“It’s always emotion being on the podium,” says Pendrel. “Just looking out at the fans who were incredible, and it was such an amazing atmosphere. You get to see your flag being raised with the other countries that were on the podium.”
Pendrel and her Olympic bronze will land at the Kamloops Airport on Tuesday afternoon — with her flight from Vancouver expected to arrive around 1:38 p.m. — when friends and family will be there to greet and congratulate her on the feat.
“I’m really excited to see all my friends and family,” she says. “I’m not sure who will be there, but I actually make it home an hour before my husband.”
The mountain race on Saturday wasn’t what you would call a perfect race. Pendrel admits that herself. A fall early in the race, and mechical problems in the midst of it all, before Pendrel bore down and willed herself back into podium position halfway through the race, with Canadian teammate Emily Batty right behind.
“With two laps to go, I moved into third, and I was driving the pace. Emily was the only one in that group that was able to go with me, so going into the final two laps I was pretty confident it was going to be Canada for bronze. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be Emily or myself, so I kept driving the pace and established about a 20- to 25-second gap,” says Pendrel.
“But then I actually crashed in the last minute of the race. It was one of those a silly things where you think the race is done and you lose focus for two seconds. I couldn’t believe it, but it made the finish so dramatic.”
Pendrel crossed the finish line in a time of 1:31:41 — two seconds ahead of Batty. Winning the bronze, her first Olympic medal — after just missing the podium in Beijing with a fourth-place finish in 2008, and then ninth as the reigning world champion at the 2012 London Games — is a moment Pendrel will never forget.
“Before coming into this race, I asked myself ‘if I walked away from my third Olympics without a medal, would I be disappointed?’ Asking that question shows you how amazing it is to even get to three Olympics,” says Pendrel. “I still would’ve been satisfied with my career, but definitely winning an Olympic medal was something I hadn’t accomplished. It’s definitely one of the pinnacles of sport, so I’m really happy to be able to bring a medal home and be able to hang that in my home.”
