Cyclists have represented Durango in the Olympics at every Olympic mountain biking since the introduction of the sport in 1996. This year was no different, Gaige Sippy, former director of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, said on Tuesday.
The city of Durango on Tuesday acknowledged four cyclists who took home trophies from the 2024 Olympics and fared well in other world championship races: Christopher Blevins, Savilia Blunk, Riley Amos and Asa Vermette.
“For Durango this year, we have had two world champions, three Olympians, and we also won the team relay. We had team members on the team relay,” Sippy said.
Durango native Blevins attended the Olympics for his second time this year. In April, he finished first in the men’s elite cross-country in Mairipora, Brazil and reached the podium in the second and third rounds of the elite short track.
Blunk, originally from California, came to Durango to attend Fort Lewis College.
“We’ve claimed her entirely,” Sippy said, beaming. “ … She had an incredible year. She also had a very strong showing in the World Cup. She’s been our former national champion. And once again, she still uses our ZIP code for her residence. So thank you, Savilia, for your accomplishments this year and congratulations.”
She finished 12th in Paris 2024 Olympics women’s mountain biking race.
Sippy said Amos, also raised in Durango, had an “incredible” year, dominating in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in the Czech Republic, winning five world cups in short track and cross-country events. He went on to race with elite Olympians, placing seventh. Eyeing more competition, he later won the short track world championships.
“Riley had trouble carrying all the medals and stuff with him around this year. Riley’s another young man raised here in Durango,” Sippy said.
At 17 years old, Vermette won the junior men’s elite 2024 USA Cycling Gravity Mountain Bike National Championship in Zirconia, North Carolina, in early August.
cburney@durangoherald.com
