Paris 2024 Olympics: Refugee cyclist Eyeru Gebru vows to come back stronger after Games debut in women's road race
Eyeru Gebru continues to defy the odds making her Olympic debut in the women’s cycling road race at Paris 2024 on Sunday (4 August) just three years after she fled the Tigray War.
The climbing specialist was still going strong halfway into the 157.6km course that started and ended at the Trocadéro before she was pulled from the race after she missed a time cutoff.
US rider Kristen Faulkner was the surprise winner beating seasoned campaigners Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky in second and third place, respectively.
Gebru, who is no stranger to international racing, vowed to come back stronger as she looks to make her mark on the sport after representing the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Paris 2024.
The 27-year-old Gebru won silver in the road race at the African Continental Championships in 2019 and gold medals in the team time trial in 2018 and 2019 for her native Ethiopia.
Gebru was identified as a rising star and spent three years at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland before the war between her region and the Ethiopian government broke out in 2020. She fled the conflict, which killed several family members and friends, and sought asylum in France where she now lives and trains.
Gebru has been a professional rider for the French Komugi-Grand Est team which competes in the women's World Tour.