Olympic Medalist Haley Batten Speaks Out After Fine—’Slap in the Face’

While the U.S.’s best-ever Olympic mountain bike competitor has respect for the rule that earned her a fine at the Paris Games, it still felt like a “slap in the face.”

Haley Batten won silver behind France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and ahead of Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds at the mountain bike final on July 28, making her the most successful American mountain biker at the Olympics.

Batten’s race was not without drama. The 25-year-old was hit with a fine of around $565 after competing for riding through the “feed zone,” during the final lap. This is the lane dedicated to getting drinks or repairing bikes, and Batten was fined for “failure to respect the instructions of the race organization or commissaires,” according to race officials.

“I was honestly in shock,” Batten told Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on their eponymous podcast on Friday.

The rider described finishing the competition and being swept up in the post-race frenzy as a medalist when she was told about the fine, revealing none of her fellow competitors wanted to lodge an official protest against her.

“It was definitely a slap the face for sure after the race, and you’re just kind of shocked,” she said, adding: “I’m never an athlete to try and ever take a shortcut, to win a race; that’s not who I am. That’s not what I want to do.”

Batten added: “But to still hold your head high was definitely a bit tricky.”

Batten said that she had been facing since she was 9 years old, including in around 80 world cup competitions annually, and had never been penalized in a race before.

“I think they announced that rule in the days leading up [to the Olympics], but when you’re racing, you just, you’re in the moment and you’re getting from point A to point B,” Batten said. “I respect the rule and, if they need to fine me for doing something to keep the racing in order, that needs to be respected.”

Batten added that she did not realize she had committed the error until she was told after the race.

Newsweek contacted Batten via her website for comment.

The mountain biker finished ninth at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and spoke of her excitement of winning a medal in Paris.

“I knew before Tokyo that this was the race I was focusing on,” Batten told The Associated Press after the race. “I’ve known for a long time that I could be good here and Tokyo was—I wanted to be on the podium there, but I wasn’t quite ready to be honest. I prepared much better to be the best I’ve ever been. For me, preparation has been in the details, studying and building every single year.”

Batten’s silver medal was the highest achievement in the sport at the Olympics ever for Team USA. Previous medal winners in mountain bike have included bronze medals to Susan DeMattei in 1996 and Georgia Gould in 2012.