Alan Hatherly became South Africa's first Olympic mountain bike medalist on Monday when he won the bronze medal in the men's cross-country event at the Olympics.

Hatherley finished third, 11 seconds behind gold medalist Tom Pidcock of Great Britain and silver medalist Victor Koretzky of France, in the race held on Elancourt Hill outside Paris.

His result also means that he is the first cross-country mountain bike Olympic medalist for an African NOC (National Olympic Committee of Africa), according to the Paris Olympics website.

"Winning an Olympic medal is like every athlete's dream," he said.

"Being the first African (I could be wrong) mountain biker to win an Olympic medal is also a really special moment.

South African cyclists have won medals in the time trial, tandem, team pursuit, and one-kilometer time trial on the track at previous Olympic Games from 1920 to 1956. South Africa was then banned from participating in the Olympics for 28 years until 1992, when it was re-registered.

Haslally's bronze medal was also South Africa's second medal at the Paris Olympics, after winning a bronze in the rugby sevens over the weekend.

In the mountain bike cross-country, Hatherley formed the lead group of three men with Pidcock and Koretzky, but was separated by a series of attacks on the final lap.

"I gave it everything there. I knew Tom was coming back and I was waiting for that moment," Hatherly said. [The last lap was a battle for the win [between the three cars]. I was a couple of seconds short of what I needed to win, but I'm still happy. I gave it my all and that's all that matters.

"The perspective is different. I'm putting pressure on everyone by slowing down in places I didn't slow down in the previous laps, or speeding up in weird places."

Hatherley is currently the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO series leader and was the first South African to win the XCO World Cup at the sixth round of the series in Les Gets, France in July. At this race, he won both the XCO and short track races.

He has represented South Africa at the Olympics three times, finishing 26th in Rio 2016 and 8th in Tokyo.

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