Mike van Niekerk
The cyclist who won one of the first gold medals of the 2020 Olympic Games on Saturday only started cycling as a teenager when his father found a broken bicycle in a pile of scrap metal.
Richard Carapaz, only child of peasant farmers, added to the only two medals previously won by the tiny South American nation of Ecuador in nearly 100 years of participation at the Games.
The 28-year-old had already made his parents proud by winning the Tour of Italy in 2019 and finishing third in the Tour de France last weekend. But his father was beside himself with happiness at his latest exploit.
“I am the proudest man in life,” Antonio Carapaz told a local newspaper from the rural smallholding near the border with Colombia, where Richard grew up.
He said his son had always worked hard, getting up every day at 5am to milk the cows before school. After school he would feed the chickens and pigs and then find time to train on the bicycle he had rescued from the pile of scrap.
On Friday night he and his wife had sat together until dawn in their kitchen watching the Olympic Men’s Road Race. “I have no words to describe my happiness,” said Antonio Carapaz. “We hugged each other and shouted and cried with joy”.
Richard’s mother, Ana Montenegro said she was preparing to receive the fans who were sure to visit their home: “I am preparing some corn, beans with ham and chicken broth, I will wait for the people coming to celebrate,” she said.
Nicholas Dlamini, one of three South Africans competing in the road race, was prominent for several hours on screens around the world by getting into a small breakaway for more than 100km before being caught by the bunch of leading contenders.
Image source: @Bloomberg
