A journey that began on a clunky hand-me-down bicycle on the Inverness Ridge will take Savilia Blunk to Paris next month, where she will race in the women’s cross-country mountain bike competition at the 2024 Olympics.
Ms. Blunk, who is ranked number one in the United States and number seven in the world, is one of two women selected for the American team. USA Cycling announced her selection on Tuesday.
“I’ve always wanted to race at the highest level, but I didn’t know the path to get there,” said Ms. Blunk, who began competing nationally in high school. “Looking back, I realize that the path was just dedication and never giving up, despite whatever obstacles were in my way. I’m super proud.”
Ms. Blunk’s West Marin roots run deep. Her grandfather was Inverness sculptor J.B. Blunk, and her father, Rufus Blunk, was born in one Inverness cabin and built another one that he lives in with Ms. Blunk’s mother, Elizabeth Barnet. Savilia grew up climbing trees, hiking and riding bicycles with her family on the trails crisscrossing West Marin.
“My family grew up super close to nature, and being outdoors was a huge part of my childhood,” Ms. Blunk told the Light. “We would go on little cruises through Samuel P. Taylor Park. We’d jump off halfway, run up into the redwoods and just explore. Being outside was always an adventure.”
Before she could ride on her own, her dad would pull her in a cart or put her on the back seat of his bike. “I did a lot of pedaling up these hills with these kids,” Mr. Blunk said. “We took some thrilling rides.”
When she was just 3, Savilia graduated from training wheels with the help of her brother Silas. “He just gave me a little push and told me to keep turning the pedals,” said Ms. Blunk, who is 25. “I still remember it super clearly.”
Savilia, Silas and their older brother, Jasper, would do laps around the house and set up jumps in the yard. “My brothers were always pushing the boundaries on bikes, and I was just trying to keep up with them,” she recalled. “They were my best friends, and I wanted to do everything they could. And of course, they were doing it all bigger and faster than me, which inspired me to try to be as good as them.”
Ms. Blunk was hungry to excel from the very beginning, said Abbie Durkee, a former national mountain bike champion who once coached Silas. “She was bright-eyed and just couldn’t wait until it was her moment,” said Ms. Durkee, who lives in Santa Rosa. “You could see it already when she was tiny. And now she’s such an awesome shining star for mountain biking. This was her destiny. She’s had her eyes on the prize all her life.”
When Silas was racing for the Marin-based Whole Athlete Team, Ms. Blunk would sometimes accompany him on practice rides, even though she was too young to join the team, which was restricted to riders aged 15 to 22.
“She was just very tenacious, and you could see a fierceness in her eyes,” said Julia Violich, who coached Ms. Blunk on the Whole Athlete Team and later the Bear Development Team, another Marin outfit that has trained top national riders.
Ms. Blunk and her brothers were homeschooled in the early grades, but she attended San Domenico for three years, where she raced with the high school team as well as the Bears and the USA Cycling team.
Ms. Blunk is not the first Olympic mountain biker to emerge from Marin’s renowned mountain biking culture. Four others came before her, including Kate Courtney, another Bear rider, who raced in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. But Ms. Blunk is the first from West Marin.
She was all but guaranteed a spot after winning two world cup races in Brazil in April, finishing second in one and third in the other. The USA Cycling announcement this week made it official.
Cross-country riders race along tracks custom-made for daredevils, with sharp turns, steep inclines and obstacles strewn in their paths—rocks, roots, gullies and jumps. The standard races last about an hour and 20 minutes, with riders doing repeated circuits of the treacherous course. “It’s not Tour de France asphalt,” Ms. Violich said. “This is aggressive mountain biking.”
Maneuvering through the trail and a crowded field of riders requires strength, endurance and strategy—knowing when to pass, detecting other riders’ vulnerabilities, sensing when someone’s coming up behind you. Some riders excel at descents, some excel at inclines, some at negotiating the technical challenges of obstacles along the trail.
Ms. Blunk excels at all of it.
“She has extreme focus and determination,” Ms. Violich said. “No one can tell that girl no. Mountain biking is obviously an endurance sport, and you have to be very fit. But she’s very savvy on technical terrain, whether its rocks or roots, very steep downhills or a very steep climb.”
Changing weather also requires riders to adapt. “Last year at nationals in Pennsylvania, it was super wet and muddy, and she did great,” Ms. Barnet said. “And she finished a race in Snowshoe, West Virginia, covered in mud.”
When she took the podium after one of her Brazil races and popped a bottle of champagne, she was exuberant and apparently mud-free.
Since the beginning of the year, she has been training in Girona, Spain, a mountain biking mecca where her coach is headquartered. She has been accompanied by—and sometimes training with—her fiancé, Cole Paton, who is also an elite, internationally ranked cyclist. Together, they live and breathe the sport. “This is really a 24/7 job, especially at the peak of the season,” Ms. Blunk said. “I’m training, I’m racing, I’m recovering, I’m trying to fuel myself afterwards. I’m just trying to stay on top of what it takes, mentally and physically.”
Ms. Blunk, who has been working with a sports psychologist for six years, emphasized that the mental aspect of racing is immensely important. Her mother believes that’s one of her daughter’s greatest strengths.
“She’s very good at focusing,” Ms. Barnet said. “They’re all excellent racers, they all have experience, but they also must have their mental game together. The mental piece of it is heavier than anything.”
Ms. Blunk is now sponsored by the Decathalon Ford Racing Team, which provides her with logistical support that she previously had to cobble together herself.
“She’s gained so many skills from cycling,” Ms. Barnet said. “She negotiates contracts, she does public speaking. There are so many pieces to it.”
As Ms. Blunk has accrued points in the rankings, she’s earned a spot at the front of the pack of some 60 riders who line up in rows when a race commences—an important strategic advantage.
“When the gun goes off, everyone is full gas out the gate, just battling for position,” she said. “It’s completely chaotic, and it’s really important to get good positioning when it funnels into a single track.”
At the world cup race in Mairipora, Brazil, Ms. Blunk held a spot at the front of the pack for much of the race, battling it out with Jenny Rissveds, a Swedish rider who has already won Olympic gold, and Haley Batten, an American rider who will be joining Ms. Blunk on the U.S. team in Paris.
For much of the race, Ms. Blunk was in third place, although she gained on her opponents each time they ascended a steep hill. But toward the end, while negotiating a hairpin turn, Ms. Batten took a tumble, upending her bike.
Pumping her fist, Ms. Blunk crossed the finish line in second place, 27 seconds behind Ms. Rissveds. They could meet again in Paris. The women’s mountain bike races will take place at the start of the games, on July 28.
“That’s nice for us,” Ms. Blunk said. “We get to do our event and get it out of the way. And then—we’re at the Olympics.”