Mountain biker Gunnar Holmgren won Canada's first gold medal in Chile

Gunnar Holmgren, a mountain bike rider from Canada, won the first gold medal for Canada in Chile.

Gunnar Holmgren from Orillia, Ontario, added a Pan-American gold medal to his collection of national Canadian medals in mountain bike competitions. This 24-year-old athlete managed to secure Canada's first-ever gold medal in the Pan-American Games in Shangó, Chile, surpassing his Chilean competitor Martín Vidaurre Kossmann and the Brazilian José Gabriel Marques Di Almeida with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 59 seconds. Vidaurre Kossmann finished 53 seconds behind.
Holmgren took the lead in the third of seven laps in the race and held onto it in the course at the Catholic University Sports Club in the northeastern part of the city. Holmgren is part of a prominent Canadian mountain biking family; his mother, Lisa, was an elite racer, and his father, Rob, is a coach. His sister, Isabella, is the 2023 Youth XCO and XC World Champion, and his twin sister, Ava, is also a rising talent in the sport.

Gunnar, currently ranked 34th in the world, has recently completed his strongest season in the World Cup, finishing in several top positions in XCC, which includes short 1 to 1.5-kilometer races. He also secured second place in XCO and third place in XCC at the Pan American Continental Championships.
XCO stands for Olympic Cross-Country, a mountain biking off-road racing format held on hilly and predominantly dirt tracks where riders complete multiple laps.
In April, Holmgren won three medals, including a gold in the team relay as a top male athlete for Canada at the Pan American Mountain Bike Championships in Brazil.
He told OrilliaMatters in May, "My goal is to make it to the Olympics and bring back a medal for Canada."
He spent a year dedicated to his cycling and worked on improving his coaching credentials while helping mentor and guide more than 25 high-performing young cyclists across the country.

Orillia's 2021 Athlete of the Year, Gunnar Holmgren, began mountain biking at the age of 5. He joined Pivot Cycles in Quebec in 2020 and achieved a pair of top-10 finishes in the Under-23 category and four top-30 results at the World Cup level.

News Sources