Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France) has one of the most impressive palmarès in cycling, with 12 World Championship titles across disciplines – from road to mountain bike, cyclocross and gravel – but her final chance to add an Olympic Games medal to the tally is about to unfold at Élancourt Hill, near Paris.
The signs of form have been strong in the two UCI Whoop Mountain Bike World Cup races Ferrand-Prévot has taken part in this year, with the French rider coming first in the cross-country Olympic races at Val di Sole and Nove Město however she sat out the rest. The 32-year-old, who is expected to turn her attention back to the road in 2025, has been focussed on training for the big goal ahead, lining up on Sunday as one of the favourites for the cross-country mountain bike race at her home Olympics.
“The goal was to be calm, to keep all my energy to train and recover,” Ferrand-Prévot said in an interview with L’Equipe. “There wasn't much room outside for what I like to do.
“These will be my last Games, I didn't want to regret anything. I cut myself off from everything and it was beneficial.”
Ferrand-Prévot took her fifth mountain bike cross-country (XCO) world title in 2023, having taken her first in 2015, and while gold would be a fairytale finale to her final year of racing the mountain bike, she isn't getting carried away by the pressure associated with 'the event of my life'.
"Even if on paper, it is huge, it remains only sport and in a few years, no one will care whether I won or not," Ferrand-Prévot told L'Equipe. "Whatever happens, the story will be beautiful. I do not have this pressure to absolutely win, it is more to say to myself 'You did everything to get to where you are today'."
Ferrand-Prévot has raced her mountain bike in the Olympics at London, Rio and Tokyo, with tenth in Japan being her best result off-road and eighth place on the road in London being her top placing altogether. However, she has done everything possible to improve on that at her fourth Olympic Games in Paris.
"I'm pretty confident about my physical condition," Ferrand-Prévot told the French newspaper. "Anything can happen and above all, it's still sport. Sport is beautiful because it can be cruel, but we're going to avoid that being the case on Sunday."
The race is set to play out on an opening lap of 2.2km, before taking on multiple passes of a 4.4km course, that includes a technical rock garden and a challenging climb. The women's race starts at 14:00 CEDT, with the men's cross country a day later on Monday July 29.
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