Page 11 - Flathead Beacon // 12.9.15

From our family to yours...
www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
NEWS
Rose Grant was recently named to the U.S. Olympic long team for women’s mountain biking. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Kalispell Mountain Biker Named to Olympic Long Team
Rose Grant is among eight American women who could be selected to compete at the 2016 Summer Games
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
After a breakout season that included a national championship and a trip to Europe to compete for the world cham- pionship, professional mountain biker Rose Grant is among eight American women who could be chosen for the 2016 Olympic team.
The 33-year-old Kalispell rider was named to the U.S. Olympic long team for women’s mountain biking. USA Cycling announced the men’s and women’s Olympic long teams on Dec. 4, unveil- ing the lineup of athletes from which the nal 2016 Team USA roster will be selected next summer.
Out of the eight women named to the mountain bike long team, up to two will be selected to compete at the 2016 Sum- mer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The list includes former Olympians and national champions and distin- guishes Grant as one of the elite riders in the nation.
“It’s really special to be selected,” Grant said. “To break through and be one of the athletes who could be on the Olympic team is really great.”
Grant has risen to the top of the sport in only four years of riding at the profes- sional level.
Her remarkable rise includes an even more remarkable fact that makes Grant stand out in the sport. Few women at the professional level are mothers, and Grant is the only mother among the eight American women selected to the Olym- pic long team.
Grant was seven weeks pregnant when she competed in her rst profes- sional race in 2012. She slowed down her training while she was pregnant between the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Her daugh- ter, Layla, was born in spring 2013, and within seven weeks Grant was back on the bike, winning the two-hour Rocky Mountain Roubaix in Frenchtown.
Part of her rigorous training regimen included riding her road bike with a car- riage attached three to four days a week, hauling little Layla around the Flathead Valley.
In May, she won the pro national championship at the 2015 USA Cycling Marathon Mountain National Champi- onships in Georgia. She dominated sev- eral other races across the country, and
in July she was selected to compete at the mountain bike world championship in Vallnord, Andorra, tucked between Spain and France. She was one of only six American athletes to compete in the elite women cross-country race in late August and early September. She n- ished 31st out of 60 competitors and was the fourth American nisher.
Grant has few appearances in the international World Cup circuit, which may make her a long shot for the upcom- ing Olympic team.
But she said being named to the Olym- pic long list gives her a good boost and further motivation to keep working hard.
“It is exciting. Being named to the Olympic long list is super special,” she said.
“I just want to keep my ow and do what I can. Even if I am racing domesti- cally, I just want to make sure I’m doing everything within my potential. I’m going to just keep trying to work around my family schedule and get funding sup- port to be able to break through to that level of racing in the World Cup circuit. I’m on the cusp.”
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
DECEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
11